Congratulations to Energy Singularity's HH70 on achieving first plasma, with Shanghai Superconductivity supplying all high-temperature superconducting tapes.

2024-06-18

Recently, the world’s first fully high-temperature superconducting Tokamak device, developed and constructed by Energy Singularity, known as HH70, has successfully achieved first plasma discharge. With astonishing propulsion efficiency, Energy Singularity has taken a giant step, marking a milestone for global commercial nuclear fusion companies.

Since 2022, Shanghai Superconductor and Energy Singularity have established a close cooperative relationship, jointly developing a set of material supply, acceptance, and quality inspection system adaptedto nuclear fusion applications. And SST has supplied all the high-temperature superconducting tapes for HH70 from research and development, testing to the final assembly. With its batch supply capability and product performance advantages, Shanghai Superconductor has ensured the delivery of hundreds of kilometers of tapes, providing a solid material foundation for the successful construction of HH70.

Following the HH70 construction completion, Shanghai Superconductor continued supplying Energy Singularity with high-temperature superconducting tapes from 2023 to 2024 for its next important milestone, the Jingtian system. Thanks to the significant increase in Shanghai Superconductor’s production capacity, the supply of hundreds of kilometers of tapes was completed within six months.

As controlled nuclear fusion and high-temperature superconducting technology continue to advance, Shanghai Superconductor will keep on enhancing its mass production and supply capabilities to support innovation and breakthroughs in the field of controlled nuclear fusion. Shanghai Superconductor has independently developed high-performance high-temperature superconducting tapes with high engineering critical current density and has achieved stable mass production suitable for superconducting magnet applications in compact controlled nuclear fusion. With superior tape performance and stable supply capability, Shanghai Superconductor has successfully supplied batches to a number of domestic and international nuclear fusion projects, including the projects from MIT-CFS, UK Tokamak Energy Company, Energy Singularity, Institute of Plasma Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences, Startorus Fusion, Southwestern Institute of Physics, and Renaissance Fusion. The tapes have been applied in tokamak, spherical tokamak, and stellarator.

The rapid development of the global nuclear fusion market has led to a surge in demand for second-generation superconducting tapes. While strengthening R&D capabilities, Shanghai Superconductor has pushed forward its expansion plan, achieving improvements in both product performance and production capacity. The production capacity has increased to 2500 km/year (4mm width). In the first two quarters of 2024, the monthly delivery volume has been continuously stable at over 200 km. It is expected that by the end of 2024, the annual production capacity will reach 6000 km/year. Adequate production capacity enables a quick response to customer needs, significantly shortens the supply cycle, and provides solid support for the rapid iteration of global high-temperature superconducting downstream customer products, further market development, and the enhancement of product competitiveness.

In the future, Shanghai Superconductor will continue to develop new products, explore new demands, cultivate new advantages, and promote breakthroughs of high-temperature superconducting tapes in controlled nuclear fusion and other application fields.