Bloomberg NEF, December 19, 2019
CTFusion was spun out of DOE-funded research at the University of Washington and is developing sustained spheromaks, compact torus plasma configurations with stabilizing and confining magnetic fields. Spheromaks make the stabilizing toroidal magnetic field with plasma
current instead of with superconducting coils. CTFusion says this reduces complexity and sizeand should translate into more favorable fusion economics.
CTFusion has patented its Imposed-Dynamo Current Drive (IDCD) which enables efficient sustainable stable spheromak configurations. A Phase I, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award from the DOE Office of Science facilitated development of an advanced, graphics processing based feedback control system to optimize the performance of the company’s
sustained spheromaks. An ongoing ARPA-E project is funding efforts to increase the operating performance of its experimental device. This 24-month, $3 million project started in July 2019, and requires a non-federal cost-share after the first year.