Case Study: Tokamak Energy achieves scalable fusion control with National Instruments

Unlocking Fusion Energy – Our Path to a Sustainable Future

Tokamak Energy, a company developing compact fusion reactors, faced the challenge of achieving extreme plasma temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius. Their goal was to build the control systems for their ST40 spherical tokamak from scratch with a small team and aggressive timelines, requiring a solution that was scalable and could integrate numerous subsystems. They turned to National Instruments to address this complex engineering challenge.

Using National Instruments' LabVIEW software and CompactRIO hardware, the team created a modular and centralized control system. This solution provided precise, synchronized timing for extremely short experimental pulses and integrated a vast array of diagnostics and third-party equipment. The result was a highly scalable, reusable, and maintainable control system that gave the team confidence as they prepared for their first full plasma trials, paving the way for future fusion energy milestones.

Tokamak Energy

Lucy Scott

Tokamak Energy