Collaboration with UK's Tokamak Energy Towards the Social Implementation of Fusion Energy

Sumitomo Corporation has signed a collaboration agreement with Tokamak Energy ("TE"), a fusion energy company based in the UK, with the aim of collaborating towards the social implementation of fusion energy. Jointly with TE, our objective is to establish the fusion energy supply chain and achieve the actualization of commercial fusion power plants. Furthermore, we are also researching and examining the potential applications of TE's fusion energy technology in various industrial sectors.

Fusion energy (*1) is regarded as a safe and sustainable next-generation energy, as it does not emit carbon dioxide when generating electricity, and depending on the type of fuel that is used, it allows for the possible utilization of abundant fuels found in seawater, as well as possessing the capability of halting the reaction through suspension of the fuel supply. Numerous companies and governmental organizations are applying various approaches in research and development towards sustainable extraction of electricity and heat through fusion energy, aiming to demonstrate the capability of electricity generation in the 2030s. Generally, in order to generate fusion energy on Earth, it is necessary to heat the fuel to over 100 million degrees Celsius to form plasma (ionized gas). One of the technical issues with this process concerns the type of container used to contain the plasma and how to control it. There are presently two methods for containing plasma: magnetic confinement, which uses superconducting coils that create magnetic fields such as tokamak and helical; and inertial confinement, which uses laser beams.

Established in 2009, TE is a private fusion energy company based in the UK which pursues the commercial development of fusion energy, utilizing magnetic confinement through spherical tokamaks. The company possesses over 70 patents related to this area. TE also possesses its own experimental reactor, and in 2022, it became the first private company to achieve heating to over 100 million degrees Celsius, the threshold temperature for commercial fusion. TE is regarded as one of the companies most likely to achieve the commercialization of fusion energy for electricity generation, and aims to produce a spherical Tokamak commercial fusion power plant by late 2030s.

Sumitomo Corporation established the Energy Innovation Initiative in April 2021, which advocates for the development and expansion of carbon-free energy as one of its strategies. In June 2022, we made an investment in TAE Technologies, a fusion energy company in the United States. Through our collaboration with both companies, we hope to contribute towards attaining a carbon-neutral society through deepening our understanding of the cutting-edge technology of fusion energy and industry trends, utilizing our knowledge and experience towards the social implementation of fusion energy electricity generation, and furthermore, widely pursuing the development of fusion energy for usage other than electricity generation.

1. Fusion energy is the sun's energy source created through a fusion reaction when two light nuclei merge to form a single heavier nucleus. When this reaction occurs, the binding energy between the protons and neutrons in the nucleus changes before and after the reaction, resulting in a slight loss of mass and also generating a vast amount of energy.

   Source: Ministry of Culture, Education, Sports, Science and Technology "Fusion Energy: Connect to the Future"
   https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shinkou/fusion/(Japanese)

1. Fusion energy is the sun's energy source created through a fusion reaction when two light nuclei merge to form a single heavier nucleus. When this reaction occurs, the binding energy between the protons and neutrons in the nucleus changes before and after the reaction, resulting in a slight loss of mass and also generating a vast amount of energy.

   Source: Ministry of Culture, Education, Sports, Science and Technology "Fusion Energy: Connect to the Future"
   website (Japanese)

Tokamak Energy Company Overview