UKAEA to collaborate with Kyoto Fusioneering on nuclear fusion tech
The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) in Oxford has signed an agreement with private Japanese firm Kyoto Fusioneering to encourage the exchange of nuclear knowledge and skills.
This sets the stage for collaboration on a new technology pertaining to tritium ‘breeding blankets’ – a key component of many fusion reactor designs which produces tritium fuel for the nuclear reaction.
The aim is to bring the design from its current conceptual stage towards commercialisation.
Moving forward, the organisations will conduct research together into areas such as the tritium fuel cycle, remote handling and thermal cycle technologies.
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Stephen Wheeler, executive director of UKAEA, said: “Fusion energy promises to be a safe, low-carbon and sustainable part of the world’s future energy supply.
“Kyoto Fusioneering has expanded its skills and capabilities in the UK and Japan and this partnership provides us a means to access them in both locations.
“We look forward to working with them on these projects to develop new technologies.”
Kyoto Fusioneering was recently contracted to develop gyrotron technology for the MAST-U fusion machine at UKAEA’s Culham Campus in Oxfordshire.
Gyrotrons provide high-power microwaves for amplifying fusion reactions.
The outcomes of this project are set to inform the early designs of STEP, a prototype power plant to be built at West Burton, Nottinghamshire.
Professor Satoshi Konishi, CEO of Kyoto Fusioneering, said: “We’re proud to work closely with UKAEA.
“We have aspirations to expand the global impact of our technology beyond Japan.
“UKAEA is one of the world’s most renowned fusion research institutions, and we hope our collaboration will take the best of public and private sector ambitions and capabilities to deliver a better result than each of us could have achieved alone.”
