Fusion Engineering Academy

The Academy will be hosted by UKAEA on site at Culham Campus across two separate weeks

Week 1: 10th – 13th February 2025
Week 2: 3rd – 6th March 2025

Bookings were brisk for this event and it is now full, if you have any queries please email

Overview

Existing training in physics and engineering for fusion is heavily lecture-based, with very little opportunity for trainees to review or practice the material. There is no practical hands-on training. Direct experience with equipment available at Culham would enrich the experience of anyone wanting to enhance their understanding of fusion engineering and further their professional development.

For these reasons, UKAEA are holding a Fusion Engineering Academy at the Culham Campus near Oxford. The Academy will have these features:

  • Specifically for engineers and scientists (A STEM degree is a prerequisite.)
  • Hands-on activities
  • The lectures will be supported by written assignments and study sessions with a tutor.
  • All Academy materials will be open access.

The Academy is divided into two parts, which can be booked separately, although we recommend that delegates take both. (Any delegates attending Part 2 only will be asked to study the introductory material from Part 1 which will be supplied.)

The Academy complements, and is distinct from, the Fusion Industry School.

Both parts of the Academy will take place at Culham Campus, Abingdon, OX14 3DB.

Price: £1680 for the whole course (8 days). £960 if only one part is booked (4 days).
Price for Part 1 includes lunches.
Price for Part 2 includes lunches and one dinner.

Hands-on activities

Both weeks will include hands-on training activities. The following topics are expected to be available (although details are still to be confirmed):

  • Tensile testing, including standard load-frames, small-scale testing and non-indentation
  • Scanning and transmission electron microscopy, including grain structure determination and elemental mapping
  • Positive Materials Identification X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy – John Claridge
  • Shadowing the staff in the “MAST” tokamak control room
  • Measurement of radioactivity using gamma spectrometers
  • Industrial collaborative robot (“cobot”)
  • 3D printing via selective laser melting
  • Welding

Lectures

The lectures will cover the topics below. All the lecture presentations will be available to the delegates, and will include:

  • Sources of information and data
  • Recommendations for further study

Part 1 (10 – 13 February 2025)

  • Components and subsystems of a tokamak fusion power plant
  • Tokamak plasma confinement and equilibrium, scrape-off layer and divertor
  • Plasma auxiliary heating and current drive
  • Tokamak magnets
  • Materials – effects of irradiation on engineering properties and design options
  • Corrosion and material compatibility
  • Fuelling and pellet injection
  • Tokamak diagnostics and reactor control
  • Responsible use of modelling and simulation
  • Manufacturing technologies, codes and standards
  • Structural integrity and design criteria

Part 2 (3 – 6 March 2025)

  • Spherical tokamaks and STEP
  • Tritium breeding blanket and first wall design
  • Fluids and heat transfer
  • Vacuum technology and calculations, cryopumping and cryoplant
  • Remote maintenance
  • Balance of Plant (Rankine cycle, Brayton cycle), energy storage, integration with electricity grid
  • Responsible research and innovation in fusion engineering. Regulation. Proliferation.
  • Safety principles and radiation protection
  • Generation, minimisation, management and disposal of radioactive waste.
  • Fusion reactor costs
  • Case studies in fusion engineering 

Visas

Please check the UK Government website to see if you need a visa to attend this conference and if so click the box when registering your interest.

We will send you a visa invitation letter to assist with the process.  We recommend you apply for a visa at least 16 weeks ahead of the event.

If you require a conference invitation letter to help secure a visa, please write to  stating your full name, organisation and nationality as on your passport

Local Accommodation

Oxford City Centre:

Just outside Oxford City Centre:

Nearby Towns hotel suggestions:

Transport Links

  • Buses run directly from London Heathrow Airport to Oxford and take less than 90 minutes.
  • From Gatwick you can travel to Oxford directly by bus, or via London by train.
  • Trains run to Oxford from Paddington Station and take around an hour.
  • There is a direct train with no changes from Birmingham Airport to Oxford which takes an hour.
  • There is a bus that runs from Birmingham Airport to Oxford Bus Station and takes around 1hr 20 mins.
  • You can travel by train from London St Pancras International, the terminus for Eurostar in 90 minutes.