The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and Italy-based global energy company, Eni (formerly Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi), have formed a joint venture, RH3OVA, to offer capabilities to the fusion energy sector.
RH3OVA [pronounced: Reeova], incorporated in the UK, combines the technical and industrial expertise of both partners to deliver specialist consultancy and operational services to the growing global fusion industry.
This strategic partnership combines UKAEA’s decades of world-class scientific research – notably from operating the Joint European Torus (JET) – with Eni’s large-scale engineering and industrial capabilities. The joint venture specifically targets the fusion fuel cycle, which remains one of the greatest technical hurdles to establishing commercially viable fusion power plants.
While deuterium is easily extracted from seawater, tritium is exceptionally rare and requires highly complex management. RH3OVA will deliver end-to-end expertise across the entire lifetime of deuterium-tritium fuel systems. This will include:
- Feasibility Studies: Guiding early-stage concepts and regulatory compliance.
- Tritium Handling & Production: Advising on safety, storage, and specialised processing.
- Recovery & Recycling: Developing systems to capture unused tritium from exhaust gases and refine it for re-use.
- Digital Process Models: Providing best-in-class digital twin simulations validated by real-world fusion data.
- Building on Existing Infrastructure.
The name RH3OVA is a clever, wordplay that directly reflects the joint venture’s scientific mission and business model. It breaks down into three key elements:
H3: This is the scientific symbol for tritium, the rare radioactive isotope of hydrogen that serves as the core fuel for commercial nuclear fusion. Managing the “H3” fuel cycle is the entire reason the company was founded.
R: This stands for Recovery or Recycling, emphasising the company’s primary technical objective – recapturing, processing, and purifying unused tritium from fusion reactor exhaust systems.
OVA/NOVA: The suffix plays on Nova (Latin for “new”), a standard linguistic root in the energy sector denoting innovation and new beginnings, signalling a new era for commercial fusion power plants.
The launch of RH3OVA deepens an ongoing collaboration between the two organisations. In 2025, they partnered to construct the UKAEA-Eni H3AT Tritium Loop Facility at the Culham Campus in Oxfordshire. Scheduled for completion in 2028, it will be the world’s most advanced facility for studying, processing, and recycling tritium fuel.
“Having operated the Joint European Torus, which was the world’s most powerful deuterium-tritium fusion machine for more than 40 years, and with 30 years’ experience of tritium operations, the UK is a leader in tritium fuel cycle technology,” said Stephen Wheeler, Executive Director of Tritium Fuel Cycle at UKAEA.
He added: “For fusion to be realised as a commercially viable source of energy, however, this expertise must be scaled beyond the lab. RH3OVA offers best in class digital process models validated with real-world, fusion relevant data sets. RH3OVA will combine UKAEA’s scientific and operational know-how, with Eni’s large-scale industrial capability, and leverage this joint expertise to increase knowledge and understanding across the fusion sector.”
Lorenzo Fiorillo, Director Technology, R&D & Digital at Eni, said:
“Fusion energy has the potential to redefine the global energy landscape, and at Eni we are committed on multiple fronts to turning this potential into tangible industrial progress. Our partnership with UKAEA is of great strategic value to us and represents a further step in scaling up innovation and translating scientific excellence into real-world solutions.”
He continued: “Today, with UKAEA, we are continuing our joint commitment for further progress in the fusion energy field, with a particular focus on the fuel cycle for fusion. This builds on our collaboration developing the UKAEA-Eni H3AT Tritium Loop Facility started last year which will be a world-class facility of its kind. At the same time, RH3OVA will respond to the growing demand for specialised technical expertise and integrated engineering services dedicated to the fuel cycle, which will be essential enabling factors for the operation of fusion power plants using deuterium and tritium as fuels.”
