The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and Italy’s Eni, have entered into a collaboration agreement to develop advanced technological solutions in fusion energy and related technologies, including skills transfer initiatives. They will jointly construct the world’s largest and most advanced tritium fuel cycle facility. The “UKAEA-Eni H3AT (pronounced ‘heat’) Tritium Loop Facility”, located at Culham Campus will be complete in 2028.
Tritium recovery and re-use will play a fundamental role in the supply and generation of the fuel in future fusion power plants and will be crucial in making the technology increasingly efficient.
The “UKAEA-Eni H3AT Tritium Loop Facility” is intended to serve as a world-class facility providing industry and academia the opportunity to study how to process, store and recycle tritium.
The H3AT facilities will comprise advanced tritium infrastructure, to feed, recover, store and recycle tritium; a flexible suite of enclosures designed to enable a wide variety of experimental work, including pure tritium science, process development, component testing and waste detritiation; computational simulations and model validation; training facilities; and materials detritiation processes and facilities. H3AT will include a prototype-scale process plant and experimental platform, which is a scaled version of the design for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).
Eni will contribute to the H3AT project with its expertise in managing and developing large-scale projects, helping to de-risk its roadmap. The partnership combines UKAEA’s extensive expertise in fusion research and development with Eni’s established industrial-scale capabilities in plant engineering, commissioning, and operations.
“We are proud to be at the forefront of global innovation in clean energy fusion technologies, and this collaboration with Eni marks a significant step towards unlocking the potential of fusion energy, supporting our missions for economic growth, clean power and energy independence,” said UK Climate Minister, Kerry McCarthy.
“We are delighted to be working with Eni who have shown great commitment to fusion, said UKAEA CEO Professor Sir Ian Chapman. “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.”
Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi said fusion energy is meant to revolutionise the global energy transition path. “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.”
In May 2024, UKAEA appointed Canadian engineering firm AtkinsRéalis to deliver the detailed design of an isotope separation system to strengthen research into sustainable fusion delivery. The Isotope Separation System will form part of the H3AT facility.
