Launching an initiative for fusion as the energy source of the future
From left: Lisa Ericsson (KTH Innovation, Peter Roos (CEO Novatron Fusion Group), Ingvar Eriksson (Investment Director EIT InnoEnergy), Diego Pavia (CEO EIT InnoEnergy).
Today the KTH Royal Institute of Technology announced a partnership with Novatron Fusion Group AB and EIT InnoEnergy to make fusion the global, large-scale and green energy source of the future. The partnership is centered on the new NOVATRON fusion reactor design, an innovative Swedish solution for fusion plasma containment with enormous potential.
Roadmap from experiment to commercialization
Novatron Fusion Group’s chairman, Erik Odén, explains the new NOVATRON rector design.
The partnership will build a new test facility to validate Novatron Fusion Group’s unique approach to plasma confinement whilst conducting research and education. The goal is to demonstrate that stable plasma can be achieved – a fundamental prerequisite for achieving stable and continuous fusion. Long term, the vision is to have a commercial fusion design that enables net power to the energy grid before 2040.
KTH’s extensive knowledge of plasma physics and well-equipped Alfvén Laboratory (named after Nobel Prize recipient Hannes Alfvén) are vital components of this strategy.
“We are delighted to be collaborating once again with EIT InnoEnergy. Having successfully worked together in many areas, including innovation and education, our latest joint ambitions for fusion technology have the potential to evolveinto something truly valuable”, says Stefan Östlund, vice president for global relations at KTH.
A European perspective
Fusion power has long been suggested as the technology breakthrough needed to support reaching the global shift to net zero goals. However, it has also struggled to be proven technically and commercially viable. We believe our innovation is the key to unlocking the large-scale production of energy through fusion.
Peter Roos, CEO at Novatron Fusion Group
EIT InnoEnergy will contribute its pan-European and well-established network of industry, academia and public institutions. EIT InnoEnergy has invested in three strategic sectors in Sweden - battery storage, green hydrogen and solar photovoltaics. Novatron Fusion Group represents its fourth strategic sector.
“Beating climate change demands big-impact innovations, and these innovations require resources and investment to scale them. Novatron Fusion Group is one of the many examples of EIT InnoEnergy supporting in this way, accelerating progress to net zero. Fusion energy is a crucial base-load solution in our zero-carbon journey. It is for that reason I am greatly excited about the impact Novatron Fusion Group’s unique solution could have by making fusion a reality”, adds Diego Pavia, CEO of EIT InnoEnergy.
Solving challenges in partnership
Making fusion power a reality requires more than just a breakthrough in reactor design. Today, physicists and engineers focus on solving engineering challenges, material testing and iterating fusion systems. The plasma containment challenge also involves a colossal financial investment in order to commission, maintain and fully operate a fusion power plant.
NOVATRON - a completely new fusion reactor design
The NOVATRON design is the brainchild of Swedish innovator and entrepreneur Jan Jäderberg. It is designed to maintain a steady state continuous fusion process with high reliability and energy density at a cost equal to or lower than other energy sources available today. The NOVATRON innovation has, theoretically and numerically, been shown to minimize problems with plasma instabilities that currently obstruct the commercial advancement of fusion energy.
It is Novatron Fusion Group’s aim to establish the NOVATRON innovation as the preferred large-scale zero-carbon energy fusion reactor design, streamline nuclear engineering, and reduce the current capital cost of future fusion reactors. The first experimental reactor is now being commissioned and developed by world-leading physicists, engineers and academia in Stockholm, Sweden.
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