UK-based engineering firm Sheffield Forgemasters plans to manufacture the interior vessel of a demonstration power plant to be launched by Canadian nuclear power provider General Fusion.
General Fusion has signed a contract with The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) to build a Fusion Demonstration plant at UKAEA’s Culham Campus.
Sheffield stated that it will use its nuclear power capabilities to develop a method to manufacture the thick-walled vessel at its Oxfordshire facility.
It further added that it’s still contemplating the potential steel grades to be used along with the modeling of forging and heat treatment processes and their effect on the entire microstructure.
Construction of the demonstration plant is expected to begin by 2022 and operations are projected to start three years after. Davis Index had not received a response from Sheffield on details of steel grades to be used and steel consumption for building the vessel at the time of publication.
Representatives of both Sheffield Forgemasters and General Fusion, along with members of the UK government, noted that fusion energy is a key source of limitless low-carbon energy paving the way for a greener future. Significantly, the partnership has come a few days before the EU voted to make carbon neutrality by 2050 a law in the region, on Jun 24.