Nousheen Nawal Hanni Lux Member IEEE Rhian Chapman James R. Cowan Member APM
Being a novel technology, estimating costs for fusion power plants comes with large uncertainties. Cost uncertainties in prototypes arise from various sources and reduce with programme maturity (including the selection of a site), technical and design maturity, maturity of the commercial strategy (e.g., make vs. buy decisions, partnering de…
PreprintHazel Gardner Gyula Zilahi James Wade-Zhu
Two-micron thick erbium oxide tritium barrier coatings have been prepared by aerosol injection chemical vapor deposition and subsequently irradiated with 33 MeV Au 6+ ions at fluences up to 2.1×10 15 Au/m 2 at 550 o C. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy were used to investigate the coating surface …
PublishedWilliam Iliffe Simon Chislett-McDonald Fiona Harden Kirk Adams James Tufnail Chris Grovenor Susannah Speller Aidan Reilly Ezzat Nasr
The UKAEA’s Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) program aims to demonstrate the ability of a low aspect ratio tokamak to generate net electricity from deuterium-tritium fusion. Specifically, its aim is to deliver a prototype fusion power plant, targeting 2040, and a path to the commercial viability of fusion, by engaging with and invig…
PreprintChris Brown Hanni Lux James Cowan
Developments in fusion energy technology and the aspiration to build and run commercial fusion energy power plants has seen the commencement of numerous publicly and privately funded projects in recent years. Megaprojects, like fusion power plants, by their very nature are inherently complex and risky, therefore providing a robust cost estimate in …
PreprintDaniel Padrão David Hancock James Paterson Frank Schoofs Christopher Tuck Ian Maskery
Heat sinks have manifold applications, from micro-electronics to nuclear fusion reactors. Their performance expectations will continue to increase in line with the power consumption and miniaturisation of technology. Additive manufacturing enables the creation of novel, compact heat sinks with greater surface-to-volume ratios and geometrical comple…
Preprint PublishedMax T. P. Rigby–Bell Alex J. Leide Slava Kuksenko Chris Smith Chris Bearcroft Gyula Zilahi Louise Gale Tony Razzell James Wade–Zhu Dave J. Bowden
Silicon carbide fibre–reinforced silicon carbide matrix (SiCf/SiC) composites are desirable in structural nuclear applications due to their low density, high temperature strength and tolerance to energetic radiation. We have subjected two industrial grades of SiCf/SiC to high energy He²⁺ ion irradiation, up to 10,000 a…
Preprint PurchaseFabio Federici Matthew L. Reinke Bruce Lipschultz Andrew J. Thornton James R. Harrison Jack J. Lovell Peter Ryan Matthias Bernert Hendrik F. Meyer the MAST Upgrade team
A prototype infrared video bolometer (IRVB) was succesfully deployed in MAST-U, the first deployment of such a diagnostic in spherical tokamaks. The IRVB was designed to study the radiation around the x-point and has the potential to return emissivity profiles of unprecedented spatial resolution. The system was fully characterised prior installatio…
Preprint PurchaseGowri Karajgikar Rachel Lawless Tim Xu James O’Callaghan Barry Butler
An investigation was conducted into minimising effective dose to members of the public in the unlikely event of an accident by optimising design parameters and site locations of future fusion power plants. This is part of our defence in depth approach for tritium safety that also includes significant work on the prevention of accidents. Calculat…
Preprint PublishedGeorgina Graham Alexander Pearce James Morris Richard Kembleton
The EU DEMO power plant is the final stage of the EUROfusion Fusion Technology Programme’s route to commercially viable electricity supply [1]. The selection of apposite technologies for DEMO power plant sub-systems is essential. The breeding blanket, responsible for absorption of nuclear energy, tritium fuel production and a substantial proporti…
PreprintEnrique Miralles-Dolz Alexander Pearce James Morris Edoardo Patelli
To make informed decisions during the concept selection activities of a fusion power plant it is necessary to evaluate the impact of uncertainties on the feasibility and performance of each concept. A framework for uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis has been developed for the PROCESS systems code to allow the direct comparison o…
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