AbstractA preliminary safety analysis of the superconducting magnet system of a ‘next generation’ tokamak is performed. Such tokamaks must satisfy nuclear class safety standards to permit their operation. Designs are not sufficiently advanced to permit the full safety case to be made. However scoping calculations of the form presented here enable potential problems to be identified or eliminated. With a number of constraints on the design it is shown that ‘passive’ safety could be achieved in such a magnet system i.e. the magnets can not cause failure in adjacent nuclear components.