Canada’s AtkinsRéalis (formerly the SNC-Lavalin Group) has been selected to develop the pre-concept design for US-based Type One Energy’s Fusion Pilot Plant (FPP). Earlier this year, Type One announced the selection of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) Bull Run Fossil Plant in Clinton, Tennessee, as the construction site for its prototype Infinity One. This device will validate key design features that will then be incorporated into the FPP. Both Infinity One FPP will use Type One’s stellarator technology, including state-of-the-art superconducting magnets to control plasma with temperatures of over 100m degrees Celsius for electricity generation.
Joe St. Julian, President, Nuclear, AtkinsRéalis said: “By combining AtkinsRéalis’ global fusion experience and world-class design and engineering services with Type One Energy’s stellarator technology, together we’re advancing the commercial deployment of fusion energy.”
AtkinsRéalis’s UK-based fusion team along with US capabilities and expertise will provide multi-disciplinary engineering services, to develop the full plant requirements, pre-conceptual facility designs, and a preliminary site layout for the FPP. Working closely with Type One Energy, AtkinsRéalis will integrate established project delivery solutions alongside novel fusion technologies, seeking to de-risk the delivery of the fusion plant while optimising cost.
“This programme of work is the first step in a strategic partnership with Type One Energy as they commercialise their technology and progress the potential of fusion to power the US energy transition,” said Jason Dreisbach, Director of Advanced Energy Technologies at AtkinsRéalis. “With our global fusion expertise, we are uniquely positioned to support the transition of Type One Energy’s fusion technology into a commercially viable and sustainable source of energy to power a net zero future.”
said Gregg Schneider, Type One Energy’s Vice President of Global Partnerships and Supply Chain Management said AtkinsRéalis was selected “because of its subject matter expertise across multiple disciplines, including engineering, planning, and deployment, as well as its accumulated knowledge and market presence in the emerging fusion technology space”. He added: “We believe that developing long term business and functional level relationships will serve both parties as additional work scopes are contemplated over the next decade.”
AtkinsRéalis’s fusion capabilities include partnerships with the US Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), and its role supporting the delivery of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Cadarache, France since 2010.
Type One Energy Group, which was established in 2019 and venture-backed in 2023, has a track record of building state-of-the-art stellarator fusion machines. The company says it applies proven advanced manufacturing methods, modern computational physics and high-field superconducting magnets to develop its optimised stellarator fusion energy system. Its FusionDirect development programme pursues the lowest-risk, shortest-schedule path to a fusion power plant over the coming decade, “using a partner-intensive and capital-efficient strategy”.
Type One said construction of Infinity One could begin in 2025, following the completion of necessary environmental reviews, partnership agreements, required permits, and operating licences. This will allow the company to verify important design features of its FPP, particularly those related to operating efficiency, reliability, maintainability, and affordability.
“Infinity One, once completed, will be the world’s most advanced stellarator,” Type One says on its website. The primary goals of the Project Infinity programme and Infinity One include:
- Demonstrating the efficacy of our modular high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnet system for stellarators;
- Evaluating stellarator plasma performance in the presence of a metallic first wall;
- Verifying the reduction in plasma heat loss from turbulence; and
- Confirming improved exhaust efficiency.
“Infinity One will also provide a testbed for demonstrating improved manufacturing, construction, and commissioning processes, both in cost and time, using design innovations and modern methods.”
