Kyoto Fusioneering’s Mission to Accelerate Fusion Energy: Technologies, Challenges and Role in Industrialisation

• Published in: Journal of fusion energy 2023-06, Vol.42 (1), p.10, Article 10
• Main Authors: Baus, Colin, Barron, Paul, D’Angiò, Andrea, Hirata, Yosuke, Konishi, Satoshi, Mund, Jasmine, Nagao, Taka, Nakahara, Daisuke, Pearson, Richard, Sakaguchi, Masatsugu, Sakamoto, Keishi, Seko, Kiyoshi, Takeda, Shutaro, Wilson, Andy, Yoshioka, Yuto
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Commercialization; Critical path; Electric power production; Electric power-plants; Electricity generation; Energy; Energy conversion; Energy development; Energy Systems; Fuel cycles; Fusion; Fusion reactors; Nuclear Energy; Nuclear engineering; Nuclear Fusion; Nuclear power plants; Original Research; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Plasma; Plasma heating; Plasma Physics; Power plants; Public policy; Sustainable Development; Test facilities; Tritium
• ISSN: 0164-0313; 1572-9591
• DOI: 10.1007/s10894-023-00346-y

Making fusion power viable both technologically and commercially has been a challenge for decades due to the great complexity of the science and engineering challenges. In recent years, changes in both government policies and the emergence of private fusion companies have ushered a newfound push to accelerate fusion energy development. Kyoto Fusioneering (KF) is a privately funded fusion engineering start-up, founded to accelerate the development of high performance, commercially viable technologies that will be required for a fusion power plant, specifically those associated with heating and current drive systems, power generation, and the tritium fuel cycle. The company is focused on supporting the rapid expansion of the budding fusion industry. This paper provides a high-level description of some of the technical and industrial challenges it is tackling in developing a commercial fusion reactor, in particular in relation to: plasma heating with gyrotrons, tritium handling and breeding, energy conversion, and fusion materials. It provides an overview of KF's activities in finding solutions to challenges in each of these areas, including via its new testing facility now under construction, UNITY (Unique Integrated Testing Facility). KF’s core capabilities and areas of R&D focus are discussed, with reference to how they benefit the development of a new fusion industry as a whole and bring the technology closer to industrialisation, including via UNITY and through collaboration with external partners. The importance of industrialisation and subsequently commercialisation is also discussed, through KF’s assessment of the newly emerging fusion ecosystem, and where KF as a company sits within it.