Eastern Superconductor Supplies All the Tape for Startorus Fusion's 10 T Central Solenoid Model Magnet
Eastern Superconductor (东部超导) supplied all of the rare-earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) tape in a central solenoid model magnet that Startorus Fusion (星环聚能) has tested at 20 K (−253 °C, −424 °F), reaching a peak field of 10 T and a field change rate of 63 T/s. It is the second fusion magnet result in two months to carry the tape maker’s name, after a stellarator coil for BlueStar Fusion in August, though this time no supply volume was announced. The buyer has raised three funding rounds in 2026 and wants its first device running by the end of 2029.
A fast-discharge test took the model magnet to 10 T
On 10 October 2026 Eastern Superconductor announced that Startorus Fusion had completed a low-temperature fast-discharge test at 20 K (−253 °C, −424 °F) of a central solenoid model coil (CSMC) it developed for a spherical tokamak. The magnet reached a peak field of 10 T and a central field of 7.6 T at a current of 6,350 A. During the discharge the current changed at up to 40 kA/s and the field at up to 63 T/s, with a peak voltage of 2,850 V, which the company says corresponds to a loop voltage of 6.75 V in the device.
Eastern Superconductor says the test verified the magnet’s operation under low-temperature, high-field and fast-discharge conditions and provides data for engineering high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets for spherical tokamaks. It presents the result as further validation of its own REBCO tape. The release gives no tape length or width and does not describe how the magnet is built.
A central solenoid is pulsed, so ramp rates are the figures that matter
In a tokamak the central solenoid sits in the middle of the machine and ramps its current to induce the current that flows in the plasma. That makes it a pulsed magnet. Unlike the toroidal field coils, which run at steady current, it has to tolerate fast changes in field, so discharge and ramp rates are the figures that show whether a solenoid design will work. The loop voltage is the voltage the solenoid induces around the plasma ring, which is why the release converts the discharge into that number.
A spherical tokamak is a compact, low aspect-ratio tokamak in which the plasma sits close around a narrow central column. That column leaves little space for the solenoid, which puts a premium on conductor that carries high current in a small cross-section.
No tape volume came with this result, unlike the BlueStar deal
The BlueStar Fusion result in August came with a commitment to supply thousands of kilometres of tape over two years. The Startorus announcement names the buyer and gives Eastern Superconductor the full tape share in one model magnet, but mentions no follow-on order. Commercially, that makes it a qualification result. It puts the company’s tape into a second fusion design, a pulsed tokamak solenoid alongside a steady-field stellarator coil, without yet attaching a volume. Eastern Superconductor is also a member of the state-led consortium building China’s first 25 T HTS magnet test line by 2028.
Startorus raised three rounds in 2026 and targets a first device by end-2029
Startorus Fusion closed a RMB 1 billion Series A in January 2026, which Yicai reported as a record single round for a Chinese private fusion company. The Paper reported that it then announced a RMB 500 million A+ round in early May and a RMB 880 million A++ round on 8 August. Together with the earlier rounds, the A++ money is going to an experimental base in Jiading, Shanghai, and to building and operating NTST, which The Paper describes as a negative-triangularity spherical tokamak. Its founder and chief executive told Yicai that the first goal after the financing is to have the company’s first device running by the end of 2029. The release does not say which machine the model magnet is for.