On January 22nd, took place the kick-off meeting of the HTSMART* project: Design, prototyping and validation of high temperature superconducting magnets for ultra-compact fusion reactors, belonging to the CDTI’s ‘TransMisiones 2024’ call, and in which CATEC participates.

The HTSMART Consortium is formed by an AEI grouping made up of the University of Seville (as leader) and CATEC; and a CDTI grouping, formed by Elytt Energy, Skylife and INESPASA. The project aims to design a magnetic confinement fusion reactor in the most compact and efficient way possible, using a compact spherical tokamak with plasma operated with negative triangularity, and using for the first time in the world a coil with high temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets in an operating tokamak.

CATEC, in particular, will design and manufacture the HTS coil structure with integrated cryogenics using metal additive manufacturing technology, and will include sensors integrated into the metal structure for real-time protection of the fusion reactor.

“This project is a step beyond the current Tokamak SMART reactor already installed in Seville, as we will install a new type of magnet that improves reactor performance,” explains Irene Heras, Testing and Advanced Processes Engineer.

[*Project HTSMARTPLEC2024-011228 funded by MICIU/ AEI / 10.13039/501100011033 / FEDER, EU].