General Atomics has shipped the final batch of high-precision corrugated waveguide components for the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority’s Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak upgrade.
The waveguides are metallic tubes with ridged interiors designed to transmit high-power radio frequency waves from sources such as gyrotrons to the plasma inside the tokamak, helping to reach the extreme temperatures required for nuclear fusion. General Atomics said the components will enable a next-generation plasma heating method known as electron Bernstein wave heating, which will be tested on the MAST Upgrade machine.
“The new EBW heating system will enable UKAEA scientists, and scientists from around the world, to increase their plasma physics knowledge to support the commercialization of fusion energy,” Paul Stevenson, UKAEA tokamak engineering systems head, said in a statement.
According to UKAEA, the MAST Upgrade experiment aims to support the development of compact fusion energy power plants by increasing the heating power, pulse length and magnetic field strength of the original MAST machine, which operated from 2000 to 2013. The experiment also contributes to the multinational ITER initiative, the world’s largest tokamak project under construction in southern France.
Earlier this year, General Atomics partnered with Tokamak Energy, a private fusion company spun off from UKAEA, to deliver a gyrotron waveguide for its high-field ST40 tokamak. The project, part of a joint program between the U.S. and the U.K., aims to accelerate the development of a fusion pilot plant.