German and Japanese leaders to cooperate on fusion as commercial agreements signed

Courtesy of Proxima Fusion

THE LEADERS of Japan and Germany have signed a joint declaration to cooperate on advancing nuclear fusion technology, while five agreements were struck between commercial developers. 

As part of German chancellor Friedrich Merz’s state visit to Japan this week, he and Japanese prime minister Sanae Takaichi vowed to cooperate in the commercial development of several areas of advanced technology including fusion, space, clean hydrogen, quantum and synchrotron radiation science. 

Accompanying Merz was Francesco Sciortino, the CEO and co-founder of Max Planck Institute spin-out Proxima Fusion, who signed memoranda of understanding (MoU) with Japanese conglomerate Fujikura and integrated systems developer Kyoto Fusioneering to help advance their plans to launch a commercial fusion power plant in Gundremmingen, Germany, by the end of the next decade. 

The MoU with Fujikura specifically concerns Proxima’s plans to build a high-temperature superconducting (HTS) tape factory in Lower Saxony. Developing a stellarator reactor design consisting of dozens of non-planar coils of HTS tape, Proxima’s demonstrator plant will require 20,000 km of the material, and the commercial plant will need double. The company said it will draw on Fujikura’s “manufacturing expertise” to build the factory.

Kyoto Fusioneering, meanwhile, will assist Proxima with developing next-generation gyrotrons for plasma heating and fuel cycle technologies. 

Stellarator technology is growing in popularity as the reactor design to best achieve net energy gain from nuclear fusion, particularly in Germany, where the Max Planck Institute’s Wendelstein 7-X research facility hosts the world’s largest stellarator, providing the basis of Proxima’s design. Like the more widely-developed tokamak design, stellarators use magnetic fields to confine hot plasma, usually tritium nuclei, which are then fused together to generate power. However, proponents argue that stellarators will require lower electrical currents than tokamaks to achieve the same confinement quality. 

Sciortino said: “The global race to fusion will be won in factories and supply chains. Japan has spent decades building world-class fusion engineering capabilities; Germany has the leading stellarator engineering in the world and knows how to industrialise. 

“In working closely with Kyoto Fusioneering and Fujikura, we are building a new industry together, one that makes both our countries more secure. Japanese partners choosing to work with Germany is a direct result of the strong backing fusion enjoys from the German government and the EU, as well as our determination to apply world-leading technology to the world’s increasing energy demands and climate challenge.”

Anti-fission, pro-fusion

The German and Japanese governments have taken similar approaches to nuclear technology since the Fukushima disaster in 2011. While both countries have largely remained staunchly opposed to new fission plants, they have both invested heavily in fusion. Although the US and China are considered to be the leaders in the global race to achieve commercial fusion, German companies have collectively raised more than $1bn. 

Following Merz’s visit, Takaichi said: “Cooperation between Japan and Germany in the field of industrial technology is of great importance. As leading industrial technology nations, both countries play a key role in Asia and Europe, based on their shared manufacturing spirit.”

In addition to Proxima, Kyoto Fusioneering also signed an MoU with Focused Energy, which is developing laser-driven inertial fusion energy, a distinct confinement technology from both tokamaks and stellarators. Meanwhile, German Gauss Fusion signed a “joint statement of intent” with Japanese Helical Fusion to advance modular and helical stellarator technology.