The University of Edinburgh and four others organisations have secured contracts to develop lithium technology for fusion energy.

The recipients have received contracts ranging between £700,000 and £1.5 million, totalling £7.4m, from the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority’s (UKAEA) Fusion Industry Programme.

The Fusion Industry Programme challenge, “Realising the potential of lithium in an economic, sustainable and scalable fusion energy fuel-cycle,” was launched in early 2023. It was created to help encourage organisations to create and evaluate prototypes of lithium technology.

The University of Edinburgh’s contract concerns tritium, an atom that can be produced in fusion reactors through contact with lithium. The contract will lead to the development of continuous tritium capture and gaseous release through chemical control.

The other recipients in this latest wave of fusion-focussed contracts include Bangor University, the University of Bristol, the University of Manchester, and the Frazer-Nash Consultancy.

Tim Bestwick, UKAEA’s chief development officer, said: “Fusion energy continues to feature on the world stage, with recent commitments being made at COP28 to develop fusion as a sustainable, low carbon source of energy for future generations.

“The Fusion Industry Programme is encouraging the development of UK industrial fusion capacity and preparing the UK fusion industry for the future global fusion power plant market.

“The organisations that have been awarded these contracts have successfully demonstrated their lithium technology concepts and will now develop them to the ‘proof of concept’ stage.”

Recommended reading

• How Can the UK’s First Lithium Refinery Help Us Reach Net Zero?
• Fusion Research Robots to be Used in UK Space Tech
• How Will This Robotic Snake Help With Nuclear Fusion?

The latest contracts follow the award of Fusion Industry Programme contracts earlier in the year. These focussed on digital engineering and fusion fuel requirements, and more recently, materials and manufacturing as well as heating and cooling technologies.

One of the last times DIGIT reported on UKAEA and fusion energy was when the Authority and the Satellite Applications Catapult partnered to demonstrate how robotics technology developed for fusion energy research can be used to provide maintenance for in-orbit satellites.