General Atomics-Led Facility Unveils Compact Tokamak Concept for Nuclear Fusion Energy

The General Atomics-managed DIII-D National Fusion Facility has developed a compact nuclear reactor design as part of efforts to support commercial nuclear fusion initiatives.

The DIII-D facility’s Compact Advanced Tokamak concept builds on the high-performance computing activities of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and well as the DIII-D team’s plasma physics research work, General Atomics said Monday.

CAT is intended to support steady-state operations, fortify machine integrity and optimize costs associated with fusion energy.

Richard Buttery, project lead at General Atomics, said that CAT is meant to enable more fusion within the tokamak to improve the sustainment of plasma and continuously generate electricity at a steady state.

He noted that the effort will support goals to “bring limitless carbon-free energy to the planet.”

CAT’s announcement comes after the DOE Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine called for accelerated deployment of fusion energy concepts in the U.S.