Fusion is the energy source of the Sun and stars. In the tremendous heat and gravity at the core of these stellar bodies, hydrogen nuclei collide, fuse into heavier helium atoms, and release huge amounts of energy in the process. Three conditions must be fulfilled to achieve fusion in a laboratory: very high temperature (on the order of 150,000,000 °C); sufficient plasma particle density (to increase the likelihood that collisions do occur); and sufficient confinement time (to hold the plasma, which has a propensity to expand, within a defined volume). At extreme temperatures, electrons are separated from nuclei and gas becomes a plasma---often referred to as the fourth state of matter. Fusion plasmas provide the environment in which light elements can fuse and yield energy. In a tokamak device, powerful magnetic fields are used to confine and control the plasma. Fusion research followed the first Tokamak experiments in Russia in the late 1950s. The Tokamak has been adopted around the world as the most promising configuration of a magnetic fusion device. As an example of the intense research activity, the international collaboration of ITER in Southern France will be the world's largest Tokamak---twice the size of the largest machine currently in operation, with ten times the plasma chamber volume. The first plasma light is planned for 2025 and Deuterium-Tritium Operation begins in 2035\. Investment in private fusion companies has more than doubled in the past year and eight new companies have been founded, bringing the total to around 33\. There is a growing demand for materials that can withstand the Fusion environment and in particular the 'connection' to the Fusion reactor vessel. These connections are mostly in the form of tubes to evacuate, monitor, and deliver the media to the reactor. The connection tube materials will be steel alloy based and will not be capable of withstanding the environment safely without additional protective measures. This protection will be in the form of high-integrity coatings that act as a barrier between the Fusion environment and the base steel alloy tubes. These coatings will be developed within the project by the partners and created by a variety of vacuum plasma deposition means. The project aims to create a Merseyside-based hub for the development and delivery of coated tubes for Fusion and other demanding applications.

The need for secure, clean, reliable, and sustainable sources of energy has grown in both importance and urgency. Part of the solution to meet these needs is nuclear fusion. While experimental progress in fusion has evidenced its viability, a range of engineering challenges must be met and coordinated before fusion reactors can operate reliably for long periods, and to deliver a net energy gain. Among these challenges is the processing of large real-time data sets from cryogenically cooled superconducting magnetic coils that maintain the plasma from which energy is released. Superconductivity can break down if a hotspot forms in part of a coil; the subsequent rapid warming and loss of plasma confinement results in damage and downtime. To prevent this, hotspots must be rapidly located so individual coils can be protected. Hotspots can be detected using a process called optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR). Laser light is sent down an optical fibre that is co-wound with a coil; a hotspot affects some of the light reflected back along the fibre; its detection allows the hotspots to be located. However, precisely locating hotspots in multiple coils within fractions of a second, requires the rapid processing of vast amounts of data. This information processing challenge is a barrier to clean energy from fusion. As information processing has matured beyond the central processing unit (CPU), a variety of tailored control and computational hardware has emerged including graphics processing units (GPUs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), Neural Networks (NNs) and quantum computing. Each of these sacrifices a general purpose (classical) computing capability to enable much greater power for particular information processing tasks. The people at Duality Quantum Photonics have pioneered integrated photonics as a platform for both Optical Neural Nets (ONNs) and quantum information processing. Quantum Optical Neural Nets (QONNs), the combination of these two paradigms, in integrated photonics, provide an appealing platform for a range of information processing tasks, including the processing of real-time data required to sustain fusion energy generation. In this project, Duality will partner with the private fusion energy company Tokamak Energy, and with the UK Atomic Energy Authority, to design and fabricate QONNs in photonic chips to process OFDR data for the rapid location of hotspots. The project will demonstrate how quantum computing can help tackle some of the information processing challenges that stand in the way of net gain fusion energy.

Tokamak Energy (TE) has unlocked a potential new route to scalable fusion power that is cost-effective and does not require huge infrastructure and capital expenditure. The technology will revolutionise world energy production -- it will be possible to produce more energy, more cheaply and with fewer undesirable consequences than existing technologies (e.g. by eliminating long term nuclear waste and dramatically reducing carbon emissions while not requiring huge tracts of land). The TE route to fusion power harnesses two specific technologies -- spherical tokamaks and high temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets. The company currently has a world leading position in HTS magnets with 19 families of patents already filed, but wishes to accelerate its development programme, particularly given new competition from an MIT spin-out, funded by $50M from Italian oil company, ENI. Our vision is that this project will deliver rapid progress in a key area of HTS magnet development to keep us ahead of the competition and allow us to raise substantially more private investment over the next 5 years. The key objective is to design and develop novel HTS magnets with particular features crucial for certain magnetic coils on tokamaks. These features, especially the ability to alter the magnetic field on a timescale of 1 to 10 seconds, will mean that the magnet technology is also suitable for other applications such as medical instruments and energy efficiency/storage. The main area of focus is poloidal field (PF) HTS magnet coils. When the current in the coil changes, eg during initial energisation or adjustments to control the plasma, energy is dissipated, warming the coil. If the current sweep rate is too fast, the superconductor can become resistive, warming the coil more quickly. In extremis, the coil can go into thermal runaway, or "quench". These "AC loss" effects can be minimised by changes to the cable design and construction. The necessary PF coil current sweep rates are up to three orders of magnitude faster than required for the main toroidal field (TF) magnet coils. To meet these requirements the PF coils need an innovative cable construction and a different quench protection approach. We have several candidate solutions to this technology challenge and a suitable cryogenic test-rig to enable rapid tests of prototypes. We expect to be able to file new patent applications as a result of this project. During the project we will evaluate the best way forward with the other magnet applications.

To model plasma turbulence to demonstrate that a high magnetic field spherical tokamak is internationally marketable as a scientific instrument for fusion R&D.

Fusion power has the potential to be clean, green and plentiful. It is inherently safe and carries no risks of nuclear proliferation. Projections of future world energy supply anticipate fusion power being responsible for 36% of all global electricity production by the year 2100. However, with the present R&D proposals, including the €15bn investment in the ITER tokamak in France, it is unlikely that fusion power can become an economic reality before 2050. Tokamak Solutions has built an early prototype of a small tokamak that has the potential to speed up the fusion R&D process and bring forward the time when fusion power will be available. While huge experiments such as JET at Culham and the future ITER tokamak tackle major problems in fusion R&D, small tokamaks designed and built by Tokamak Solutions can tackle many of the challenges of fusion that are amenable to rapid development with a small device. In other words, Tokamak Solutions aims to provide a research tool to allow rapid incremental innovation in fusion in a way that is complementary to, and will speed up, mainstream fusion R&D. As demand for electricity increases (at 5% per annum worldwide) and global warming concerns increase, the need for fusion energy will become more pressing. Annual global expenditure on fusion energy R&D is about £2bn. Our proof of market study has shown that every country with a serious scientific effort would want its own tokamak for fusion research with the latest magnet technology. The objective of this project is to develop and demonstrate the world’s first tokamak with all its magnets made from high temperature superconductor (HTS). We will demonstrate that this small tokamak is easy to use by students and researchers and is capable of ground-breaking research. If we can win initial orders for small tokamaks from universities and research institutes, then the opportunities to participate in larger fusion projects will open up.

Culham Laboratory currently leads the world in the science and technology of tokamaks and magnetic confinement fusion. This is the most promising technology for the huge, long term, challenge of producing electricity from fusion. This project aims to establish the market demand for small tokamaks. In particular we will investigate the market for a small tokamak to produce a plasma suitable initially for plasma physics research and training and for R&D on plasma processing of materials for extreme environments. Technological breakthroughs with tokamaks at Culham, linked to advances in High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) magnets by Oxford Instruments, have led to this opportunity to design and develop a small tokamak (

The business opportunity that this project addresses has been summarised in the editorial and main feature article in The Engineer published on 11 April 2011. In the words of the Editor: “The medical industry relies on nuclear fission for the production of radioactive isotopes – which are essential for a range of scanning techniques and cancer treatments. With the experimental reactors that produce these isotopes coming to the end of their lives and plans to prolong their lives or replace them suddenly not looking so straightforward [due to events at Fukushima], there are genuine fears that we’re heading for a worldwide shortage of nuclear medicine. But where one technology falters, another spies an opportunity and [as Appendix A explains], an impending radioisotope shortage could give nuclear fusion – the energy industry’s holy grail – a more immediate opportunity to prove its worth. Indeed, nuclear medicine is just one application that could drive the development of fusion, its usefulness as a source of neutrons could also see it being used to clean up nuclear waste and even to trigger fission reactions in new, safe, hybrid fusion-fission reactors… Despite its considerable promise, the commercial case for fusion is far from certain and, in an economic climate where investment is increasingly limited to dead-certs, its progress has been stuttering at best. But by providing genuine solutions to short-term problems its credibility will be improved, funding should be more forthcoming and, perhaps most importantly, engineers will continue to advance the technology to the point where it can be used for commercial energy generation.” The opportunity is for Tokamak Solutions UK Ltd (TSUK) to be first to secure valuable IP (patents and designs), first to market with a Compact Fusion Neutron Source (CFNS) and first to form collaborative partnerships with larger businesses capable of addressing each of the major markets for a CFNS. The opportunity arises from the UK’s world lead in fusion research at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE), TSUK’s invention of a CFNS based on a novel combination of existing technologies and recent developments in high temperature superconducting magnets. This project will set TSUK on course to seize the opportunity. The medical applications of a CFNS are of particular interest. As well as producing isotopes, our CFNS has the potential to produce neutron beams, initially for imaging research and then for clinical use. Fusion neutron beams may also be useful for neutron capture therapy (based on B, Ga and other elements) or for fast neutron therapy. Both of these therapies offer promising approaches to treatment of certain cancers. However, both are held back by the limitations of neutron sources, particularly by the lack of high flux sources suitable for a clinical environment. Appendix A, published in The Engineer on 11 April 2011, gives a good summary of our overall business proposition.