Wed, 06 December, 2023
TWI is one of nine organisations to have secured contracts worth a total of £11.6 million to develop innovative technologies for fusion energy. The contracts, awarded by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), seek to progress fusion energy as a safe, low carbon, and sustainable part of the global future energy mix.
Ten contracts have been awarded to the nine organisations, which include start-ups, small-medium enterprises, academic institutions and established companies, with TWI being the only organisation to secure two contracts.
The contracts, which range from £500,000 to £1.4 million, have been awarded to 3-Sci, Alloyed, Duality Quantum Photonics, Full Matrix, Jacobs, Oxford Sigma, the University of Birmingham, Cal Gavin, and TWI.
The desired outcome of the work are to address prototypes for novel fusion materials, manufacturing, and technologies as well as developing heating and cooling systems for fusion machines.
TWI’s work will focus on the use of cold-spray technology and our subsurface machining technology, CoreFlow®. The desired outcomes will be to advance cold spray additive manufacture (CSAM) technology to create large-scale components from fusion-grade materials as well as to develop CoreFlow technology to address fusion machine manufacturing challenges, particularly in relation to the first wall of plasma-facing components.
The UKAEA’s programme of work forms part of the Government’s support for the UK fusion industry, with UKAEA’s Chief Development Officer, Tim Bestwick saying, “Delivering fusion energy is one of the greatest scientific and engineering challenges of our time,” adding, “the Fusion Industry Programme is supporting businesses to overcome these challenges and help make fusion a commercial reality.”
He continued, “These organisations have been awarded contracts after successfully demonstrating the feasibility of their concepts through earlier stages of the Fusion Industry Programme and will now develop their technologies to the ‘proof of concept’ stage.”
About Fusion Energy and the Fusion Industry Programme
Fusion energy promises a safe, sustainable and low carbon solution for the future of world energy. There have been significant advances both in the UK and around the world demonstrating the potential of fusion energy. Despite this, there are still technical challenges to overcome to fully realise the potential of fusion energy. The Fusion Industry Programme is engaging organisations to stimulate the required innovation to address these challenges.
TWI is delighted that we can use our technologies and expertise to support the second phase of the Fusion Industry Programme and bring matters forward to the development stage.
We will bring you more information as this work progresses and you can find out more about fusion energy, here.