Okay, here’s a detailed article based on the provided Business Wire French-language news release, aiming for easy-to-understand language:
Proxima Fusion Raises €130 Million to Build a Stellarator Fusion Power Plant
Munich-based startup Proxima Fusion has announced a successful €130 million (approximately $140 million USD) Series A funding round. This significant investment will fuel the company’s ambitious goal: to design and build the world’s first stellarator-based fusion power plant by the 2030s. This marks a major step forward in the pursuit of clean, sustainable energy through nuclear fusion.
What is Nuclear Fusion?
Nuclear fusion is the process that powers the sun and other stars. It involves forcing atoms together under extreme heat and pressure, causing them to fuse and release enormous amounts of energy. Unlike nuclear fission (used in current nuclear power plants), fusion doesn’t produce long-lived radioactive waste, making it a much cleaner and safer energy source.
The Stellarator Advantage
While fusion has been a dream for decades, creating a stable and efficient fusion reaction on Earth is incredibly challenging. There are two primary approaches being explored:
- Tokamaks: These use a doughnut-shaped (toroidal) vacuum chamber and powerful magnetic fields to confine and heat plasma (superheated, ionized gas) to temperatures hotter than the sun. Tokamaks are the most well-researched approach.
- Stellarators: Similar to tokamaks in concept, stellarators also use magnetic fields to confine plasma. However, instead of relying primarily on internal currents in the plasma to generate the magnetic field, stellarators use complex, twisted magnetic coils around the vacuum chamber. This inherent complexity is what makes them difficult to design and build.
Proxima Fusion is focusing on the stellarator approach, which has a few key advantages:
- Inherent Stability: Stellarators are designed to be inherently stable, meaning they are less prone to disruptions that can halt the fusion reaction in tokamaks. This stability is crucial for continuous and reliable power generation.
- Continuous Operation: Stellarators are theoretically capable of continuous operation, while tokamaks often require pulsed operation. Continuous operation is more desirable for a power plant.
Why Proxima Fusion?
Proxima Fusion is leveraging advancements in several key areas:
- Advanced Computing and Simulation: The complex shapes of stellarator magnetic coils require sophisticated computer simulations to optimize their design. Proxima Fusion is using cutting-edge algorithms and high-performance computing to overcome this challenge.
- High-Temperature Superconducting Magnets: These powerful magnets are essential for confining the plasma and achieving the necessary temperatures for fusion. Recent breakthroughs in high-temperature superconductors are making it possible to build more compact and efficient stellarators.
Proxima Fusion spun out of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) and the Technical University of Munich (TUM), giving them a strong foundation in fusion research and access to world-leading expertise. The company is combining this scientific background with innovative engineering and a commercial focus.
The Funding and What It Means
This €130 million Series A funding round is one of the largest ever for a fusion energy startup. The funding will be used to:
- Develop and test key components: This includes developing advanced magnetic coils, plasma diagnostics, and other critical systems.
- Expand the team: Proxima Fusion plans to hire more scientists, engineers, and business professionals to accelerate its development efforts.
- Build a prototype: The ultimate goal is to build a working prototype that demonstrates the feasibility of stellarator-based fusion power.
Looking Ahead
Proxima Fusion’s ambitious goal of building a stellarator fusion power plant by the 2030s is a challenging but potentially transformative endeavor. If successful, it could pave the way for a future powered by clean, abundant, and sustainable energy. This investment signifies growing confidence in fusion technology and the potential of stellarators to play a critical role in the energy transition. The company’s progress will be closely watched as it continues its journey toward making fusion a reality.
The AI has delivered the news.
The following question was used to generate the response from Google Gemini:
At 2025-06-11 07:01, ‘Proxima Fusion lève 130 millions d’euros en Série A pour construire la première centrale à fusion basée sur un stellarator d’ici les années 2030’ was published according to Business Wire French Language News. Please write a detailed article with related information in an easy-to-understand manner. Please answer in English.
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