F4E orders 30,000+ tungsten components from Freemelt for JT-60SA

JT-60SA’s plasma-facing hardware, including its divertor, relies on tungsten’s resistance to the extreme heat loads generated during operation

(Image courtesy of QST, Photo: F4E/QST)

Freemelt has received an order from Fusion for Energy (F4E) to manufacture and deliver more than 30,000 tungsten-based components for the JT-60SA fusion programme, the world’s largest superconducting tokamak. The contract carries a base value of SEK 55 million, with options that could raise the total to SEK 84 million. Freemelt’s fusion order book has so far consisted of research and feasibility contracts. An order of this scale and structure marks a significant step up in commercial terms.

From feasibility studies to a production-scale contract

Freemelt’s fusion order history to date has consisted mainly of feasibility studies and materials-development contracts. A 2023 order from the UK Atomic Energy Authority to develop tungsten manufacturing methods for future fusion power plants carried a value exceeding SEK 1 million. Subsequent orders from the University of Sheffield’s Nuclear AMRC and from private fusion developer TAE Technologies followed a similar pattern, funding tungsten feasibility work rather than production runs. The F4E order moves well beyond that pattern. It specifies more than 30,000 finished tungsten components and a two-year delivery schedule running through 2028, with the majority of units due in 2027.

Freemelt says the order will be delivered through its Manufacturing business area, working with established partners across the value chain from raw material to finished, qualified components. CEO Daniel Gidlund described the award as a commercial breakthrough that reflects a wider market shift toward qualified manufacturing capacity and robust regionalised supply chains, a framing that ties the deal directly to that partner network rather than to Freemelt’s printing technology alone.

Tungsten’s role in JT-60SA’s plasma-facing components

Tungsten’s suitability for this environment comes from its high melting point, low sputtering rate, and high thermal conductivity, properties central to components that must withstand extreme heat loads inside a fusion reactor. F4E, the EU body responsible for Europe’s contribution to ITER and the development of fusion energy, has separately run tungsten raw material procurements tied to JT-60SA’s actively cooled divertor, according to notices on the EU’s TED procurement portal. Those notices illustrate the kind of high-heat-flux, plasma-facing hardware that tungsten components on JT-60SA typically support, though Freemelt’s announcement does not specify which subsystem this particular order will supply.

JT-60SA runs on superconducting magnets and is a joint European-Japanese programme hosted at QST in Naka, Japan, built to support research ahead of ITER and the later transition toward DEMO-class reactors.

Delivery runs through 2028 as JT-60SA enters its next experimental phase

With deliveries scheduled across 2027 and 2028, the order gives Freemelt a multi-year production commitment to plan its Manufacturing business area around, rather than a single feasibility milestone.

JT-60SA’s own timeline runs alongside that delivery schedule. The tokamak restarted integrated commissioning in early 2026 ahead of a new experimental campaign expected to begin by the end of the year, with a further campaign planned to run through 2027. The bulk of Freemelt’s tungsten deliveries lands as JT-60SA moves through that active near-term experimental period.

Stay ahead in the fusion revolution explore more breakthroughs from leading innovators in clean energy technology.