Formal initial design review of Infinity Two completed
US fusion energy developer Type One Energy announced it has successfully completed the first formal design review of Infinity Two, its 350 MWe fusion pilot power plant using its stellarator technology.
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Type One Energy said the Infinity Two is "based on the world's only implementable, peer-reviewed physics basis for a fusion power plant recently published by the prestigious Journal of Plasma Physics."
It said the successful completion of the initial design review confirms that the Infinity Two technology approach, architecture, performance, and reliability requirements "remain aligned with the expectations of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the broader global energy market" for a commercially-viable first-of-a-kind fusion power plant.
The Infinity Two plant is being designed to supply a nominal 350 MWe to the electricity grid. The design is based on the company's stellarator fusion physics basis, "which for the first time realistically considered, in a comprehensive and unified manner, the complex relationship between competing requirements for plasma performance, power plant startup, construction logistics, reliability, and economics utilising actual power plant operating experience".
The Infinity Two plant design is expected to have a two-year operating cycle with 30-day planned maintenance outages using today's existing materials and enabling technologies.
"Our ability to efficiently architect the initial Infinity Two design in an efficient, partner rich manner reaffirms our commitment to pursuing the lowest risk, shortest schedule, path to a commercially viable fusion power plant," said Type One Energy CEO Christofer Mowry. "The energy industry needs more reliable, clean, power generation technology that can meet the rapidly increasing demand for electricity and we are delivering a commercially compelling solution."
In February this year, Type One Energy signed a cooperative agreement with TVA to jointly develop plans for a potential fusion power plant project in the Tennessee Valley region using Type One Energy's stellarator fusion power technology. Type One Energy said the Infinity Two offers a complementary source of baseload electrical generation for the region as early as the mid-2030s. It has the potential to repurpose retired TVA fossil fuel power plant infrastructure in addition to being deployed onto greenfield sites in support of energy security and reliability.
Stellarator fusion reactors are different to tokamak fusion reactors, such as the Joint European Torus in the UK or the Iter device under construction in France. A tokamak is based on a uniform toroid shape, whereas a stellarator twists that shape in a figure-8. This gets round the problems tokamaks face when magnetic coils confining the plasma are necessarily less dense on the outside of the toroidal ring.
Article researched and written by WNN's Warwick Pipe
