The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) has awarded contracts worth £8.1m ($11m) from its Fusion Industry Programme to 14 organisations to develop shielding and fusion fuel technologies for future fusion power plants.
Eleven organisations received 13 contracts worth a total of £3m to develop sustainable radiation shielding solutions. These projects will conduct technical feasibility studies to reach a “proof of concept” stage.
Three organisations were awarded a combined £5m to scale up existing projects. These “scale-up” contracts focus on advanced production and handling of hydrogen isotopes, specifically tritium recovery and analytical methods for continuous fuel cycles.
The scale-up projects will build on expertise developed during initial phase 1 feasibility studies and phase 2 prototyping projects. Prototype technology will be tested, with data gathered in operationally relevant environments, bringing the technology closer to commercialisation.
These initiatives are designed to address critical safety and engineering hurdles as the UK moves toward commercialising fusion energy through its STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) programme
Fusion machines must withstand extreme conditions: temperatures exceeding 100m degrees Celsius in the plasma core, intense flux of high-energy neutrons and powerful magnetic fields essential for plasma confinement. UKAEA says effective shielding – both inside the vessel (to protect components from direct plasma and neutron bombardment) and outside (to safeguard sensitive systems like superconducting magnets) – is critical for plant safety and reliability.
Novel shielding materials and technologies are a cornerstone for viable future fusion energy power plants, as well as other aligned industries. “Shielding is a critical safety requirement for any system involving the production of ionising radiation, including the neutrons and gamma fields expected in fusion systems,” said Mark Gilbert, Head of Programme for Neutron Materials Interactions at UKAEA. “It is important to develop shielding solutions for both in-vessel, where space is constrained, and ex-vessel, that are robust, economically viable, and have minimised environmental impact. This challenge is asking UK industry to explore novel solutions for the different shielding applications in fusion.”
The companies receiving funding for shielding included:
- Kyoto Fusioneering UK Ltd for Composite Shielding for Modular and Innovative Confinement (COSMIC) and Composite Materials for Precision Absorption in Spectrum-specific Systems (COMPASS);
- Aegis Fibretech Ltd APEX for Advanced Panels for Extreme eXposure: Ultra-light multifunctional metamaterials for fusion shielding;
- Oxford Sigma Ltd for Shielding by Hydride Engineering for Lightweight Deployment (SHyELD) and Shaping TUngsten By Bonding It, part II (STUBBI II);
- Tokamak Energy Ltd for CAST: Cermet Advancement for Shielding in Tokamaks;
- TWI Ltd for Deposition of novel graded-Z shielding materials for fusion using cold spray additive manufacturing (ColdShield);
- Glass Technology Services Ltd for Glass and glass ceramics for fusion reactor shielding applications;
- First Light Fusion Ltd for Natural lithium shielding
- Materials Nexus Ltd for SHINE – Superior High-performance Intermetallics for Neutronic Evaluation;
- Monolith Performance Ltd for ALRAD Shield – Advanced Layered Radiation Shield;
- Amentum Clean Energy Ltd for Reduced activation options for in-vessel shielding; and
- University of Warwick for Shielding solutions for fusion power plants inside and outside the plasma chamber.
In fusion, energy is released when two forms of hydrogen are heated to form a plasma at extreme temperatures. Handling these hydrogen isotopes throughout the entire fuel cycle – from supply to recovery and recycling – presents one of fusion’s core engineering challenges.
“Excellent progress has been made by all suppliers involved in the development of a wide range of hydrogen isotope technologies in recent years,” said Lyndsey Mooring, Head of the UKAEA’s Fusion Industry Programme. “Now with this additional funding, we can provide vital follow-on contracts and technical opportunities to three promising solutions focusing on analytical methods to measure and control operations of a continuous fusion fuel cycle, and the core components for recovering tritium. Their work in the coming months, supported by experts and capabilities at UKAEA, will continue to strengthen the UK private sector in this important technical challenge.
The organisations awarded contracts for hydrogen isotope technology include:
- IS-Instruments Ltd for Gas Raman Detection of Tritium (GRADE)
- AqSorption Ltd for Prototyping and validation of AqSorption’s electrolyser and Pd-Graphene membrane cassette assembly to efficiently and effectively manage and separate hydrogen isotopes for fusion; and
- Gencoa Ltd for a remote real-time isotopic exhaust gas analyser for fusion devices.
The Fusion Industry Programme will complete delivery of all current challenge projects across key technical areas of fusion, and the Programme will come to a close once current projects are complete this year.
