SBRI Competition: Fusion Industry Challenges Cycle 1 Phase 2

Tender description

This is a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition funded by the UK Atomic Energy Authority. The aim of the competition is to develop solutions to fusion energy challenges in two key priority areas. The competition has two themes. 1. Accelerating fusion power plant design with next-generation digital tools 2. Reducing fusion power plant fuel requirements with advanced production and handling technology for hydrogen isotopes This is phase 2 of the competition. All successful phase 1 applicants are invited to this further competition. Lot 1: Accelerating fusion power plant design with next-generation digital tools A Pre-Commercial Procurement Activity under SBRI Accelerating fusion power plant design with next-generation digital tools To meet Net Zero targets, there is not enough time for traditional Design-Build-Test-Learn (DBTL) approach for fusion power plants. Increasing emphasis will be placed upon emerging innovation from in silico engineering design: Exascale artificial Intelligence era Digital Thread platform • beyond current Product Lifecycle Management • endures for the lifetime of the product (100 years) • low-code • time efficient • scalable • enable and promote automation • enable design integration and accelerate the product development lifecycle Optimise the extraction of information and knowledge from experiment and simulation Text update 19 May 2021: we have changed the detail below to clarify what we are looking for in applications. • data science for experiment and simulation automation and optimisation • decisions based upon all prior data rather than tacit knowledge • dramatically improve extraction of information from data • surrogate models and emulators • improve extrapolation of simulation and empirical data Lot 2: Reducing fusion power plant fuel requirements with advanced production and handling technology for hydrogen isotopes A Pre-Commercial Procurement Activity under SBRI Reducing fusion power plant fuel requirements with advanced production and handling technology for Hydrogen isotopes Tritium is a radioactive isotope with a half-life of around 12 years, because of this natural reserves are scarce. Developing techniques for safely and efficiently managing hydrogen isotopes is an essential step in the path to making fusion a commercial energy source, for example: • Hydrogen Isotope Separation Technologies • improving efficiency of tritium and hydrogen systems (e.g. pumps, sealants, inner loop) • waste management and decommissioning • development of on-line Tritium production measurement (e.g. Raman spectroscopy) • tracking and location of hydrogen, e.g. Atom probe tomography, Raman spectroscopy • Storage and delivery of Tritium