Fusion Energy
Magnets and power supplies for fusion, from first plasma to the first power plants.
Fusion energy
The magnets and power systems fusion depends on
Every fusion concept — magnetic, inertial or magneto-inertial — depends on two foundational subsystems: the magnets that shape and confine the plasma, and the power supplies that drive them. Woodruff Engineering has designed and built both for fusion programs for more than a decade, from laboratory plasma devices to megajoule-class capacitor banks for private fusion developers.
We combine fusion physics with practical engineering. Our founder, Dr. Simon Woodruff, has worked in fusion research for over two decades, and our sister company Fusion Advisory Services tracks the magnet and power supply requirements of more than 115 fusion programs worldwide. We understand where your machine is heading, not just what it needs today.
The fusion supply chain
A market moving from R&D to power plants
$301M
Spent each year today on fusion magnets and power supplies across 115+ active programs
$15.7B
Projected annual market by 2036 as first-of-a-kind plants are built
~47%
Compound annual growth in the combined market, 2026–2036
35%
Share of a magnetic fusion plant’s power-supply cost taken by coil supplies, the largest single category
Source: Fusion Advisory Services, Fusion Industry Market Report: Power Supplies & Magnets 2026–2036 and Power Supplies for Fusion (2026).
What fusion needs
Requirements by confinement approach
MFE
Magnetic confinement
Tokamaks, stellarators and mirrors with HTS toroidal, poloidal and central-solenoid coils need DC supplies of 10–80 kA per circuit, ±10–100 ppm current stability, ripple below 0.1% and pulses of 100–10,000 s. Quench detection, fast energy extraction and four-quadrant operation matter as much as the headline ratings.
IFE
Inertial fusion
Laser drivers need pulsed power for diode-pumped solid-state or excimer (KrF/ArF) lasers firing at 5–15 Hz, where power conditioning and capacitor charging account for 60–75% of power-supply cost. Reliability over very long shot lifetimes drives every design choice.
MIF
Magneto-inertial & pulsed
Multi-megaampere pulsed power with nanosecond timing, plus pulsed magnetic field generation. Today’s facilities fire less than once a day; power plants will need 0.1–1 Hz, making capacitor lifetime, solid-state switching and energy recovery the critical technologies.
What we build
Fusion-grade magnets and power supplies
Magnets
- Large water-cooled resistive magnets and multi-coil arrays
- Helmholtz and racetrack coil systems, including our 2 MW large racetrack Helmholtz coil
- Solenoids and field-shaping coils for mirrors, FRCs and plasma sources
- HTS magnet design and prototyping
- Electromagnetic, thermal and structural simulation of every design
Power supplies & pulsed power
- Capacitor banks from 1 kJ to 20 MJ, including megajoule-class banks for fusion developers
- Pulsed power supplies from 1 kV to 400 kV, with kA to MA peak currents
- Regulated high-current DC coil supplies and rectifiers
- Capacitor charging, crowbar, switching and protection systems
- Ethernet-controlled systems, factory acceptance tested before shipping
How we work
From first-of-a-kind to fleet
01
Specify
We help translate your physics requirements into a buildable, testable specification, including protection and integration.
02
Design
Electromagnetic, thermal and structural modelling, with design optimization and plant costing through our partner nTtau Digital.
03
Build & test
In-house manufacturing and factory acceptance testing at our 20,000 sq ft facility in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
04
Scale
Designs frozen for manufacture, so cost falls with every unit as you move from a demonstration machine to a fleet.
Insights
Our thinking on fusion supply chains
How many power supplies does a fusion fleet need?
Counting the coil supplies in a 2,000 MW plant, and why fleet scale is a delivery-rate problem.
Wright’s Law for pulsed power
Designing cost decline into plasma sources and pulsed power from the first unit.
FOAK cost is the wrong number to argue about
Why the learning curve, not first-of-a-kind cost, decides fusion’s economics.
Quality & compliance
Certified quality, controlled exports
Our customers include national laboratories, defense primes, fusion developers and universities around the world. They need to know that what we ship meets specification, and that it reaches them lawfully. Both are built into how we run every job.
ISO 9001:2015 certified
Woodruff Engineering operates a quality management system certified to ISO 9001:2015. It covers the design, manufacture and test of our magnets, power supplies and pulsed power systems.
- Every order follows a documented product-realization process, from contract review through design, build, test and delivery
- Customer requirements are reviewed and agreed before work starts, and design changes are controlled
- Design reviews with the customer at concept and final design stages for custom systems
- Materials and components bought from qualified suppliers and traceable to each build
- Factory acceptance testing before every shipment, with as-built data and test records
- Nonconformances recorded and closed out with corrective action
- Internal audits and management review drive continual improvement
Our ISO 9001 certificate is available on request.
Export control compliance
High-voltage capacitor banks, pulsed power switches, power supplies and high-field magnets can be subject to US export controls. We manage compliance on every order, domestic and international.
- Products and designs classified under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) before quotation and again before shipment
- Customers, end users and intermediaries screened against the US Consolidated Screening List and OFAC sanctions lists
- Signed end-use and end-user statements requested for international orders where required
- Where a license is needed we tell you at quotation, apply for it, and build the time into the schedule
- Controlled technical data and drawings handled under the same rules, with access limited to authorized U.S. persons where required
- Export records kept for at least five years
Need an export classification (ECCN) for a product, an end-use statement form, or our ISO certificate? See our compliance contact.
Fusion programs we have worked with
Let’s work together on your
next project
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We look forward to hearing from you