EXPERIMENTAL-SCI-FI-TEK

AtkinsRéalis to design fusion plant for Type One Energy

11 July 2024

US fusion energy developer Type One Energy has selected Canadian engineering firm AtkinsRéalis to develop the pre-concept design for its Fusion Pilot Plant, which will use stellarator technology to demonstrate its potential to generate clean, safe and affordable power from fusion energy.

An impression of how the stellarator may look (Image: Type One Energy)

AtkinsRéalis said its UK-based fusion team will work alongside US capabilities and expertise to provide multi-disciplinary engineering services, to develop the full plant requirements, pre-conceptual facility designs, and a preliminary site layout. Working in close collaboration 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."

"We selected AtkinsRéalis 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," said Type One Energy’s Vice President of Global Partnerships and Supply Chain Management Gregg Schneider. "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."

In February, Type One Energy announced plans to build Infinity One - its stellarator fusion prototype machine - at Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA's) Bull Run Fossil Plant in Clinton, Tennessee. The project is the result of a tri-party memorandum of understanding signed in 2023 between TVA, Type One Energy and the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in which the partners expressed an interest in the successful development and commercialisation of economic and practical fusion energy technologies.

The construction of Infinity One could begin in 2025, following the completion of necessary environmental reviews, partnership agreements, required permits, and operating licenses, Type One Energy noted. It will allow the company to verify important design features of its high field stellarator Fusion Pilot Plant, particularly those related to operating efficiency, reliability, maintainability, and affordability.

Type One Energy's Infinity One is a stellarator fusion reactor - different to a tokamak fusion reactor such as the Joint European Torus in the UK or the Iter device under construction in France. A tokamak is based on a uniform toroid shape, whereas a stellarator twists that shape in a figure-8. This gets round the problems tokamaks face when magnetic coils confining the plasma are necessarily less dense on the outside of the toroidal ring.

Type One Energy said it "applies proven advanced manufacturing methods, modern computational physics, and high-field superconducting magnets to develop its optimised stellarator fusion energy system".

Researched and written by World Nuclear News