Featuring Fusion Power!
We filmed at the UK Atomic Energy Authority facility in Oxfordshire, where fusion power is being developed, as part of the forthcoming Made in Sheffield Awards.
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), have signed a collaboration framework agreement to partner on the development of technologies in relation to the management of tritium, a fusion energy fuel.
This agreement complements the signing today of a Memorandum of Understanding by the UK’s Energy Secretary, Claire Coutinho and Canadian Minister of 
Energy and Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson at the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Ministerial meeting.
The UK-Canada Memorandum of Understanding enhances collaboration on key focus areas, including research and development, regulatory harmonisation, and skills and workforce development.
Stephen Wheeler, UKAEA Executive Director, said: “Fusion energy promises to be a safe, low carbon and sustainable part of the world’s future energy supply. Tritium is a key fuel for fusion energy, and developing a commercial scale
fuel cycle for the handling and reprocessing of tritium is vital to the delivery of fusion as a clean energy source.”
“This collaboration between UKAEA and CNL brings together two of the largest and most experienced tritium research and operational teams in order to accelerate the development of new technologies for tritium processing,” added Wheeler.
A key focus of the partnership will be on hydrogen isotope management within the fusion fuel cycle, safely removing, processing, and reinjecting fuel to the plasma in a continuous manner. Hydrogen isotope management is an essential part of the fusion fuel cycle – tritium needs to be separated from other hydrogen isotopes in the exhaust gas so that it can be recycled and reused as a fusion fuel. Tritium is rare in nature, so managing tritium efficiently is crucial to fusion energy’s commercial viability.
The first project under this collaboration will involve samples of candidate materials for isotope separation being analysed at both CNL’s facilities in Chalk River, Ontario, and UKAEA’s facilities in Culham, Oxfordshire.
