Culham to host advanced tritium facility

The UKAEA-Eni H3AT (pronounced ‘heat’) Tritium Loop Facility will enable industry and academia to study how to process, store and recycle tritium - a fundamental ingredient for fusion energy. Tritium recovery and re-use will play a key role in the supply and generation of fuel for future fusion power plants and will be crucial in making the technology increasingly efficient.

According to UKAEA, H3AT will be the world’s largest and most advanced tritium fuel cycle facility. It’s claimed it will have 'sufficient tritium inventory' to be relevant to future power plants, with access for different user communities to support diverse research and development needs. 

“We are delighted to be working with Eni who have shown great commitment to fusion,” said Professor Sir Ian Chapman, CEO of UKAEA. “We believe that fusion energy can contribute to a net zero future, including going beyond the decarbonisation of electricity.

“The H3AT demonstration plant will set a new benchmark as the largest and most advanced tritium fuel cycle facility in the world, paving the way for innovative offerings in fusion fuel and demonstrating the UK’s leadership in this crucial area of research and development.”

The partnership combines UKAEA’s fusion R&D knowledge with Eni’s industrial-scale capabilities in plant engineering, commissioning, and operations. Eni has been present in the United Kingdom since 1964, with recent participation in the Dogger Bank, Green Volt and Cenos projects.

“Fusion energy is meant to revolutionise the global energy transition path, accelerating the decarbonisation of our economic and industrial systems, helping to spread access to energy, and reducing energy dependency ties within a more equitable transition framework,” said Claudio Descalzi, Eni CEO.

“Eni is strongly committed to various areas of research and development of this complex technology, in which it has always firmly believed. Today with our UK partners we are laying the foundations for further progress towards the goal of fusion which—if we consider its enormous scope of technological innovation—is increasingly concrete and not so far off in time. To continue this virtuous development, international system-level technological partnerships like this one are indispensable”.