Munich-based startup Proxima Fusion has raised more than €400 million from international investors to accelerate the development of a commercial nuclear fusion power plant. The company aims to build the world’s first commercially viable fusion power plant by the end of the 2030s.
Founded in 2023 by physicists and engineers, including researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Proxima Fusion is pursuing an ambitious goal: to harness nuclear fusion as a new source of clean energy.
The company’s technology is based on a device known as a stellarator. It uses powerful magnetic fields to confine extremely hot plasma and enable nuclear fusion. During fusion, positively charged atomic nuclei combine at extremely high temperatures, releasing large amounts of energy. The process is fundamentally different from nuclear fission, which is used in conventional nuclear power plants.
One of the biggest engineering challenges is the reactor’s complex magnetic system. Around 50 precisely manufactured magnetic coils will eventually have to work together to maintain the required plasma conditions. Even small deviations in their positioning could affect the stability of the system.