2024-09-03 09:00:00
Accelerating the commercialization of a nuclear fusion reactor in Europe and not being left behind by China and the United States. This is the purpose of Gauss Fusion, founded in 2022 by five European industrialists. With an ambitious timetable: to build and connect a fusion reactor to the electricity grid before 2045.
To meet the challenge, the start-up will be able to rely on the expertise of its founders. The German Bruker and the Italian ASG manufacture superconducting cables and magnets, the French Alcen is a major supplier to Iter, the Spanish Idom is a specialist in nuclear engineering systems and the German Research Instruments produces cryogenic instruments. In terms of technologies, Gauss Fusion has chosen magnetic confinement – as opposed to inertial confinement, preferred for example by the Americans within the NIF research facility – and the stellarator as a confinement facility, which twists the molten plasma into the shape of a Möbius strip. As an alternative to the tokamak – a better-known donut-shaped architecture, which is found in particular in Iter –, the stellarator is more complex to design, particularly in terms of superconducting magnets.
Making tritium
Another challenge for Gauss Fusion: finding a way to generate tritium from lithium in a closed loop. “Today, there are only 25 kg of tritium in the world, while we know that the annual consumption of our future reactor will be 150 kg.”notes its technical director, Frédérick Bordry. In the fundraising phase to find 40 million euros, the start-up is opening an office in France, particularly to apply for calls for projects from France 2030. France is one of the countries considered for the construction of the future plant, along with Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland and the Czech Republic. The criteria for choosing the site: a resilient electricity network, a controlled seismic risk and unproblematic access to water. “It could be near Iter to benefit from its ecosystem, but also on the Spanish site which had been a competitor of Cadarache to host the international program”illustrates Frédérick Bordry. While Europe is already waging a battle to host gigafactories, the construction site of the Gauss Fusion plant should be known in 2027.
You are reading an article from L’Usine Nouvelle 3732-3733 – July-August 2024
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