Swiss stealth-stage company developing the Polomac — a structurally levitated dipole configuration using magnetic tunnels to avoid plasma contact with internal coils.
Deutelio AG is a Swiss fusion energy company founded in 2022 by Francesco Elio and Filippo Elio, headquartered in Grono, Switzerland, with additional operations in Gavirate, Italy. The company is developing the Polomac, a poloidal magnetic confinement configuration that uses structural (mechanical) levitation rather than magnetic levitation to support an internal dipole coil, enabling deuterium-deuterium fusion without tritium breeding.[1]
The Polomac addresses the central engineering challenge of levitated dipole reactors: how to support, cool, and power an internal superconducting coil immersed in fusion-temperature plasma. In a magnetically levitated dipole (as pursued by MIT's LDX or OpenStar Technologies), the floating coil must periodically be recaptured for recharging. The Polomac instead diverts the outermost magnetic field lines aside, creating physical passages called "magnetic tunnels" through which structural supports, coolant lines, and electrical feeds can access the internal coil without plasma contact.[2]
This approach revisits poloidal magnetic confinement — historically abandoned due to plasma interactions with internal hardware — by using the magnetic tunnel geometry to protect support structures from the plasma. The resulting configuration retains the favorable stability and high-beta confinement properties of dipole fields while enabling steady-state operation without periodic coil retrieval.[2]
Poloidal confinement can theoretically achieve reactor-relevant conditions with magnetic fields roughly three times weaker than a tokamak requires for D-T fuel. At tokamak-equivalent field strengths, the same geometry can potentially reach conditions for deuterium-deuterium reactions, eliminating the need for a tritium breeding blanket. This is Deutelio's primary argument for the D-D fuel choice: the Polomac's confinement efficiency makes the harder fuel cycle accessible.[2]
Deutelio's published roadmap targets a small prototype to validate and tune the magnetic tunnels within three years of founding, a first reactor design within five years, and initial electricity production within ten years. The company operates at stealth stage with limited public disclosure of experimental progress or funding status.[3]