Germany-based nuclear fusion company Proxima Fusion and the State of Lower Saxony signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to lay the foundations for large-scale industrial production of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) tape in Lower Saxony.

Proxima, a spin-out from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, said the new production site is intended establish an essential industrial foundation for new European supply chains. Around €140m ($162m) in investment is planned for the first two project phases, running until the end of 2029.

The magnets built from HTS tape are essential to nuclear fusion stellarators because they generate the magnetic fields that confine and control the extremely hot plasma inside a fusion machine.