xtrEMsense, the brand name for the technology and products emerging from 3-Sci’s FIP challenge programme on Ultra High Temperature Electrical Distributed Sensing (UHTEDS), represents a world-first sensor designed for fusion environments. Supported by funding from the FIP Challenge, 3-Sci Ltd has developed a unique sensing technology. Based on electromagnetic techniques, xtrEMsense provides sub oC resolution temperature measurements from a single long-line device across multiple sensing zones acting simultaneously and independently to provide a clear temperature profile of plasma-facing fusion components. The key benefits of xtrEMsense are:
The 3-Sciv team
Funding from the FIP Challenge made this research possible. 3-Sci has been privileged to benefit from the scheme which has enabled this cutting-edge research to be conducted, validated and a test facility to be constructed. Not only has the scheme financed the work but 3-Sci has received great technical support from UKAEA, providing insights which have facilitated success. The 3-Sci team is keeping a keen eye on how this technology breakthrough can be adapted for other sensing parameters and how the innovative xtrEMsense products can provide monitoring solutions to benefit a variety of industries. Get in touch to find out more, we’d love to help with any monitoring requirements! info@3-sci.com
“We have been using FIP funding to scale up the additive manufacturing technology for steel parts for the most demanding parts of current tokamak designs, such as blanket and divertor segments. Over the course of the FIP Challenge, we’ve shown that our process results in dramatically improved material performance, is highly repeatable and can be used to make relatively large, defect-free demo parts. We’re also working with TWI on the development of electron beam welding technology which will allow us to join multiple smaller segments into larger assemblies, a key stepping stone towards becoming a component manufacturer and supplying the nascent UK fusion industry. We could not have done this without FIP. We have been using FIP funding to scale up the additive manufacturing technology for steel parts for the most demanding parts of current tokamak designs, such as blanket and divertor segments. Over the course of the FIP Challenge, we’ve shown that our process results in dramatically improved material performance, is highly repeatable and can be used to make relatively large, defect-free demo parts. We’re also working with TWI on the development of electron beam welding technology which will allow us to join multiple smaller segments into larger assemblies, a key stepping stone towards becoming a component manufacturer and supplying the nascent UK fusion industry. We could not have done this without FIP”.
“Amentum has engaged with the Fusion Industry Programme (FIP) since Cycle 1. FIP has enabled Amentum to deploy innovative technologies and collaborate with other organisations in integrated projects to advance UK industry towards the deployment of fusion power. The Liquid Lithium Test Facility, developed during FIP cycle 2, is a one-of-a-kind facility designed to generate fundamental data to support the commercialisation of fusion. The facility is developing key technologies for deployment, including lithium purification and sensing capabilities, and is also obtaining robust and reliable data of materials performance at elevated temperatures. An advisory group was formed with fusion sector members to ensure that the facility is aligned with industry’s needs and the goal of connecting a fusion power plant to the grid. FIP has allowed levels of collaboration between the advisory group that would not normally be achievable through a standard contracting mechanism and is forming the basis for long-term relationships with the fusion sector”.
The Amentum (Jacobs UK) team
AqSorption was a startup company in 2021 with just four people developing a new method of Green Hydrogen production, it is now a strong company with more than twelve employees and it’s IP is attracting attention from Multi Billion Pound global corporations. The success of the company would not have been possible without the FIP, which has given credibility and support through the difficult growth phase to commercialisation of the technology.
Through the FIP Challenge scheme, Bangor University has led a project through the Nuclear Futures Institute to develop a pilot scale route to enrich lithium isotopes through the use of microorganisms. The multi-disciplinary team has taken exciting results from the laboratory scale to design and build a pilot plant facility that will demonstrate the ability to make relevant quantities of fusion fuel in an economic manner. The team has already achieved a range of significant accomplishments, including the first cascade to take advantage of microorganism enrichment for lithium, and a range of innovative developments to aid the processing and control of the system. The pilot plant will be completed in late 2024, thanks to the support from the FIP team at the UKAEA, who have helped and supported this exciting project since its inception.
CALGAVIN has embarked on a study to enhance cooling channel capacity in fusion machines. Leveraging their expertise in heat transfer and fluid dynamics, they have designed and constructed a specialised test facility to replicate flow conditions for boiling liquids under extreme heat flux. Their primary aim is to create a novel enhancement device to shift the critical heat flux, broadening the operating range of coolant fluids and reducing burnout risk. This technology will increase efficiency and represents a major step towards fusion commercialisation. The CALGAVIN team is honoured to contribute to the UKAEA FIP program and grateful for the support that made this project possible.
CALGAVIN team: left to right: Peter Ellerby, Nathan Hill, Steve Perkins, Peter Drögemüller, Hamzah Sheikh, Aston Graham, William Osley, James Squire
The Duality Quantum Photonics team
“We develop photonic solutions to the hard problems facing business, societies, and the world. The Fusion Industry programme has been crucial in supporting our aim to deliver mission critical diagnostics for tokamaks, and in developing our partnership with Tokamak Energy. The programme has enabled the application of a powerful technology solution – integrated photonics – to a well-suited problem – quench detection in HTS magnets. A team of our engineers are now world leading experts in the intersection of these two areas, which has many applications in time-critical high-performance data processing problems across different fusion product areas, and in the wider world”.
Developing manufacturing technologies for cooling components for use in fusion machine environments, from suitable materials, remains a major challenge. The thermal resistance of tungsten makes it an interesting candidate material for plasma-facing components (PFCs). Manufacturing methods to produce complex component geometry in tungsten are highly challenging due to tungsten’s brittle behaviour. As such the additive manufacturing (AM) or powder hot isostatic pressing (HIPping) offer novel manufacture methods to form complex components from tungsten which would be impossible otherwise.
The FATHOM-2 team
Further, work is conducted to understand the mechanical behaviour of tungsten during these manufacture routes, and the potential degradation within mechanical performance of tungsten as it is exposed to prolonged irradiation effects, to allow for a full manufacturing route and life-cycle understanding. The FATHOM-2 project brings together academic and industrial experts in component design, fluid dynamics, advanced manufacturing methods, mechanical properties testing, computational analysis, and fusion machine PFC life-cycle testing. This allows the project to support acceleration of the scientific developments toward such a crucial energy technology – to provide the ever-increasing world demand for clean, carbon-neutral energy.
The FATHOM-2 project builds on the successes of FATHOM-1, where we demonstrated the feasibility of manufacturing tungsten plasma-facing cooling solutions using Additive Manufacturing (AM) and powder Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIPping). This phase aims to scale up component sizes, addressing critical challenges like thermal management, structural integrity, and manufacturability. Without the Fusion Industry Programme (FIP) funding, this project would not be possible due to the high cost and technical risks associated with scaling up novel manufacturing processes for fusion applications. The support from FIP will enable us to refine our computational design tools, optimise manufacturing workflows, and validate the mechanical and thermal performance of components in a relevant fusion environment. Additionally, the funding allows us to work closely with key industrial partners, such as Tokamak Energy, to ensure our research is aligned with real-world requirements, further driving the development of high heat flux fusion machine components. The FIP funding helped us engage with the UK’s advanced manufacturing supply chain, accelerating the adoption of these cutting-edge technologies. By fostering this collaborative ecosystem, we created transferrable knowledge and digital solutions for future fusion power plants, targeting a Technology Readiness Level of at least 4. The successful outcomes of FATHOM-2 will de-risk the application of new tungsten cooling technologies in the nuclear sector, providing significant advancements in the development of sustainable fusion power solutions.
The Frazer Nash Consultancy team
Frazer-Nash have been developing a lithium enrichment technology using plasma methods. This will allow us to produce enriched lithium-6 for improving the sustainability of the tritium fuel cycle in a fusion machine. Additionally, the FIP funding has enabled us to develop spin-off applications for the technology in the medical and the space industries. The FIP funding has allowed us to accelerate this development through bespoke plasma modelling capabilities, obtain a premises to build a demonstrator and experiment with it and secure intellectual property rights. It has allowed our business processes to provide a capability to conduct bleeding-edge research and development in rapid timescales.
Full Matrix is developing new sensor systems that will employ digital twin technology to monitor the fusion infrastructure of the future, ensuring it can be operated and maintained safely. The support of the Fusion Industry Programme has been invaluable to us on so many levels. The combination of long-term funding and the prestige associated with the Fusion Industry Programme has allowed us to attract top talent and our productivity has soared. Meanwhile, the funding has also allowed us to carry out in depth research, invest in state-of-the-art equipment and expand our facilities to accommodate the growing team and capability. Perhaps even more importantly, the mentorship we receive from world-leading specialists from UKAEA, and the networking they facilitate within the industry, gives us insights and opportunities that would be otherwise be difficult for a startup like ours to find. With the FIP backing, we are excitedly moving forward toward the release of our inaugural product.
The Full Matrix team
IS-Instruments (ISI) is an SME specialising in Raman spectroscopy and the project lead for GRADE (Gas RAman DEtection of tritium), which is funded by the Fusion Industry Programme.
ISI, the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton, and Jacobs are developing a gas Raman spectrometer to detect tritium within the fusion fuel cycle. The project is in its second stage; after the initial proof of concept phase, the instrument has been designed to withstand a tritiated environment and will be tested in Jacob’s custom-built tritium facility within the next six months.
FIP has given our project team the time and funding to develop a tritium-compatible version of the gas Raman spectrometer. With assistance from UKAEA technical experts, the development of the instrument has progressed at an exceptional pace. The team looks forward to sharing the upcoming tritium results and continuing to work with FIP.
The University of Bristol’s project objective is to develop and to demonstrate a novel solid-state diamond-based tritium detector technology that can be deployed in the fusion fuel delivery system as well as the fusion machine walls to monitor tritium use in real time and migration. The goal of the cycle 2 STRIDES project is the synthesis of diamond sensors by chemical vapour deposition using high purity carbon and hydrogen feedstock gases to produce diode structures for preliminary evaluation in deuterium and tritium gas environments. Thanks to the funding provided by the FIP programme we have
University of Bristol STRIDES team
The TWI team
CoreFlow™ is an innovative solid-state process, invented and patented by TWI, which allows for sub-surface networks of channels to be machined within monolithic metallic parts in a single manufacturing step, and has been developed as an alternative and efficient manufacturing process for thermal management systems. The process offers to significantly simplify the currently adopted manufacturing process, yielding significant cost and time savings.
Our key development objectives are to:
Being supported with FIP funding has been an excellent, unique opportunity for us to focus our research efforts on addressing a key challenge for upscaling commercial fusion energy production. We have made significant technical progress with CoreFlow™ process development which proves to the supply chain and wider engineering community that we can solve these key commercialisation challenges.
University of Bristol’s UKAEA FIP-funded CENTRAL project has been moving forwards in leaps and bounds, delivering a high-quality series of results. The centrifugation of lithium-salts in a liquid solution has proven more effective than we had anticipated and CENTRAL could well provide some solutions to the UK’s fusion industry as a method of sustaining a stable supply of enriched lithium for reactor-breeding of tritium. The project could not have been funded internally at the university and so the funding provided through FIP ensured the project’s origins and continuing success.
The LiBRA project is an ongoing UKAEA FIP-funded project at the University of Bristol investigating lithium-6 deuteride as a breeder material for tritium production. The novel approach that UoB is adopting for this project consists of testing the breeder material in quasi-real operating conditions. To this end, a breeder blanket testing platform has been developed that consists of: a high-powered neutron source (Astral Neutronics), LIBS technology for tritium detection (Clifton Photonics), and an in-house designed and built gas management system + breeder module. The project aims to assess the capabilities of lithium-6 deuteride as a solid tritium breeding material and refine breeder pellet manufacturing processes for its use on breeding modules. LiBRA’s benefits could be essential to the UK’s fusion industry, providing a suite of transferable knowledge and valuable research for other members of the fusion community to enhance their own capabilities.
The UK Atomic Energy Authority’s Fusion Industry Programme has enabled the testing of a promising candidate material for the fusion industry developed by researchers in the Cooper research group at the University of Liverpool. The funding is key to optimising the reproducibility of the production of the material through developing scalable, efficient production routes by exploiting flow chemistry. The techniques being developed at the University of Liverpool’s Materials Innovation Factory by the Slater research group allow for enhanced control of materials properties, opening up opportunities to understand in more depth what makes these materials capable of challenging separations.
The University of Liverpool team
This knowledge will feed into developing future new materials with enhanced capabilities within the fusion industry context. The FIP funding provides a roadmap to translate proof-of-concept results into sector changing technology, enabling the development of an advanced first-of-its-kind testing platform capable of testing candidate materials for fusion gas separation at cryogenic temperatures. The close collaboration between academics and researchers on the grant with industry project partners enhances knowledge transfer, skills development, and material improvements by fully understanding the needs of the fusion industry and emerging technologies.
The funding and support provided by the FIP Challenge team on the Lithium Challenge have been instrumental in the success of our project “Development of efficient continuous tritium capture and gaseous release through chemical control”. The Challenge team interaction has allowed us to clearly define the scope of this specific challenge facing the fusion industry, giving us a solid foundation from which to approach our work. This clarity has helped us to tailor our efforts to address the most pressing issues and ensured that our research remains highly relevant to the industry’s evolving needs.
The FIP Challenge also acted as a key stepping stone, helping us break into the fusion research space. Team connections opened doors for us to engage with technical experts; invaluable in translating our existing expertise and applying it to fusion. These collaborations enhanced our knowledge and also accelerated our impact, connecting our team’s expertise with the unique requirements of the fusion field.
University of Edinburgh team
Additionally, the FIP Challenge facilitated connections with companies, including stakeholders and end users, presenting valuable opportunities for future collaboration. This networking has enabled us to explore and establish partnerships that will both strengthen our work and expand its future impact.
FIP funding has enabled us to assemble a diverse fusion team with complementary and distinctive skills, funding key facility access and procuring essential equipment. This has capitalised on and augmented our existing infrastructure, capabilities and knowledge, accelerating our work and empowering us to rapidly develop our proposed technologies and expand team reach and significance.
Throughout, continuous FIP project management support and regular supportive discussions with the FIP team have ensured that our research remained aligned with both scientific goals and industry demands.
