£22m nuclear research base reaches major construction milestone
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The Fusion Technology Facility will start to be fitted out from September, with operations planned to start in summer 2021.
The new base, which will be next to the McLaren factory on Whittle Way, on the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham, will employ 40.
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Hide AdIt is owned by the UK Atomic Energy Authority and will help commercialise nuclear fusion as a major source of low-carbon electricity.
The aim is to develop technologies such as welding novel metals and ceramics and help UK firms win contracts during the construction of the multi-billion euro International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in France which is set to be switched on in six years.
Damon Johnstone, head of UKAEA Yorkshire: “We are delivering the new facility at pace, with major milestones on building mobilisation and recruitment for the new facility proceeding to plan.
“The Fusion Technology Facility in Rotherham will be unique in the world, and as well as delivering leading edge R&D it will help to seed the development of a UK supply chain for nuclear fusion.
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Hide Ad“The welcoming of UKAEA to the Advanced Manufacturing Park has been exceptional and is a credit to the local Sheffield and Rotherham councils, the Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership and developers Harworth Ltd.
“We can’t wait to get going and have no doubt the hub of manufacturing excellence being created in the area will prove to be of great importance to the commercialisation of fusion power.”
To get energy from fusion, gas from a combination of types of hydrogen – deuterium and tritium – is heated to 100 million degrees celsius, producing helium and high-speed neutrons. A fusion power station will use the energy from the neutrons and turn it into heat, which is used to create steam to drive turbines that produce electricity.
Fusion uses seawater as fuel, not radioactive uranium, its waste has low radioactivity and only a 12-year half life, not thousands of years like plutonium.
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Hide AdIt will also work with research organisations including the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, and the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre.