Thu, 02 February, 2023
Following the success of our first in-person ‘Fusion and Big Science’ event in June 2020, we held a second event at TWI Cambridge on 25 January 2023.
The event, ‘Manufacturing and Material Challenges in Fusion and Big Science,’ once-again saw presentations from a range of speakers from both TWI, our Industrial Member companies and some new faces.
Aimed at technology, materials and innovation leaders as well as design, production and quality managers, equipment and consumable suppliers and anyone else wanting to learn more about the fusion and big science sector, the event opened with an introduction from Steve Dodds - TWI’s Nuclear and Fusion Energy Industry Sector Manager.
The morning session included an insightful talk on ‘Opportunities in Big Science’ courtesy of STFC’s Liaison Officer Carol Watts, ‘Material Challenges in Building Liquid Metal Flow’ from Fraser-Nash Consultancy’s Group Leader for Advanced System Design, Ashley Strange, and ‘Materials Qualification for Fusion’ from Oxford Sigma’s Chief Technology Officer, Tom Davis.
Valerie Jamieson, Development Manager for the Fusion Cluster, continued the presentations with an introduction to the Fusion Cluster before TWI’s Sam Holdsworth spoke on the development of the CoreFlowTM technology, a sub-surface machining technology invented by TWI.
A break for lunch and networking was preceded by UKAEA’s Business and Innovation Manager, Fanny Fouin delivering a presentation on ‘Setting up a Fusion Supply Chain.’
The afternoon session began with Harmeet Saggu of Altrad Doosan speaking about the ‘Challenges Faced in the Transition of Design and Manufacturing from Fission to Fusion,’ before TWI Senior Project Leader, Stephen Grigg spoke on ‘Acoustic Emission Monitoring for Fusion Applications.’
Capucine Carpentier, TWI’s Consultant for Non-Destructive Inspection and Site Services, continued the events with a joint industry proposal presentation on ‘NDE - Best Practise for Net Zero'.
An afternoon panel discussion then commenced to discuss the topic of Fusion Energy Codes and Standards. Chaired by Oxford Sigma’s Tom Davis (also Chair of ASME BPVC Section III Division 4 SWG Fusion Stakeholders), his panellists included representatives from Frazer-Nash Consultancy, Zap Energy, UKAEA, Cambridge Vacuum Engineering, Jacobs and TWI. Notes of this interesting discussion were captured.
The event ended with closing remarks from Steve Dodds, who noted that, “The event was a great success, drawing around 60 external attendees and starting some pertinent conversations about manufacturing, inspection and material challenges.”
We would like to thank everybody who attended and participated in this event and look forward to sharing details of the next Fusion and Big Science event (Summer ’23), in due course.