Proxima Fusion plans a superconducting tape factory in Germany

What happened

Proxima Fusion was spun out of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in 2023. It designs stellarators, a type of fusion machine. The company signed a memorandum of understanding, a formal but non-binding agreement, with the state of Lower Saxony in northern Germany. Proxima's chief executive, Francesco Sciortino, and the state's Minister-President, Olaf Lies, are named in reports of the deal.

The agreement covers four tasks. The partners will assess possible sites in Lower Saxony, set up funding that is paid as milestones are met, help with permits, and build links with local companies, towns and research institutes. No site has been chosen yet. Proxima is also in talks with several international technology partners about bringing existing tape manufacturing knowledge to the region. These partners have not been named.

About 140 million euros is planned for the first two phases, which run to the end of 2029. Proxima aims to pay for this half with private money and half with public money. Lower Saxony is offering 21 million euros, which World Nuclear News says is just under 30 percent of the public share. The American Nuclear Society converts the total to about 162 million US dollars.

The tape is for Proxima's own machines. The company expects to need about 20,000 km for Alpha, its demonstration stellarator, and another 40,000 km for Stellaris, its planned power plant. Stellaris is planned at Gundremmingen, the site of a former nuclear power station. Today, according to World Nuclear News, industrial-scale production of this tape takes place mainly in Asia. The American Nuclear Society notes that Proxima signed a supply contract with Faraday Factory Japan in 2025.

The engineering behind it

A fusion machine heats gas to a plasma far hotter than the Sun's core and holds it away from the walls with strong magnetic fields. A tokamak uses a simple ring shape. A stellarator twists the ring, so its magnet coils have complex three-dimensional shapes. World Nuclear News explains that this twist avoids a problem in tokamaks, where the coils are spaced more widely on the outside of the ring.

High-temperature superconducting tape, or HTS tape, is a thin metal strip coated with a material that carries current with almost no resistance when cooled. It still needs cooling far below freezing, but much less than older superconductors. The American Nuclear Society notes that a material called rare-earth barium copper oxide, or REBCO, is widely seen as a leading choice for fusion magnets. Proxima has not said which material its factory will use.

As general background, REBCO tape is built in layers on a thin metal strip. Several very thin buffer layers are added first, then the superconducting layer, then protective metal layers. Each layer must have an almost perfect crystal structure along kilometres of tape. This needs vacuum deposition machines, tight control of temperature and gas flow, and testing along the whole length. These are the same kinds of processes used to make computer chips and solar cells.

Quality testing is a large part of the work. A single weak spot can limit the current an entire coil can carry, or cause a fault when the magnet is running. Factories therefore measure the current capacity of the tape along its length, using sensors, magnetic fields and careful data recording. Interesting Engineering reports that Proxima expects long-term purchase volumes to help keep skills in place and to reduce the cost per metre.

What it means in Nepal

The sources say nothing about Nepal, so the lesson here is about the kind of work, not about local jobs. A new technology does not only need scientists who design the machine. It also needs a supply chain of factories that make the parts, people who test them and engineers who keep production steady. Proxima's plan shows a company trying to secure one critical part, the tape, by helping to build a factory for it.

The skills used in such a factory are not tied to fusion. World Nuclear News lists other uses for HTS tape: power grids, medical imaging and treatment, advanced propulsion and other strong magnets. Thin-film coating, vacuum systems, process control and measurement are also the basic skills of semiconductor and solar cell manufacturing. A student who understands how a thin layer is grown and tested has a skill that applies across many industries.

The story also shows how public money and private money can work together on new industry. The funding is tied to milestones, which means each payment depends on progress. For engineers, this means writing clear plans, measuring results and reporting them honestly. These skills matter in any project funded by a government or a lender, from a small hydropower plant to a new factory.