The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and Czech Republic research organisation Centrum Vyzkumu Rez (CVR) have signed a multi-year agreement to enable unique testing of high temperature superconducting (HTS) tapes, critical for the development of the UK’s “Step” prototype nuclear fusion energy power plant.
UKAEA will work alongside CVR at UKAEA’s Culham campus in Oxfordshire, central England, to deliver the first-of-a kind test rig known as Hi-CrIS (high neutron fluence cryogenic irradiation of superconductors). The rig will provide data on the effect of a fusion-relevant neutron spectrum on superconducting properties of HTS tapes.
HTS tapes will be used in the planned Step prototype plant to confine the fusion plasma which can reach temperatures 10 times hotter than the core of the Sun, or about 150 million °C.