Major Projects 1990-2002
Location – Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
Project Value – £1.8million

For approximately 12 years my company were approved to supply hardware to the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. I have worked with Culham Laboratory at Abingdon and Rutherford laboratory at Harwell. Most of the work I have done has revolved around two major Fusion Reactor Experiments.

Compass Experiment

Fusion of the nuclei of hydrogen provides the energy source which powers the sun. It also offers the possibility of a practically limitless terrestrial source of energy. However, the harnessing of this power has proved to be a highly challenging problem. One of the most promising approaches is based on magnetic confinement of a high temperature (10 7 - 10 s Kelvin) plasma in a device called a Tokamak (from the Russian for ‘toroidal magnetic chamber’)

At these temperatures the highly ionized plasma is an excellent electrical conductor, and can be confined and shaped by strong magnetic fields. Early Tokomaks had plasmas with circular cross-sections, for which feedback control of the plasma position and shape is relatively straightforward. However, recent Tokomaks, such as the COMPASS experiment at Culham Laboratory, as well as most next-generation Tokomaks, are designed to produce plasmas whose cross-sections are strongly non-circular. These novel cross-sections provide substantially improved energy confinement properties and thereby significantly enhance the performance of the Tokamak.

My company manufactured general fabrications and the numerous magnetic coils that provide the magnetic field and other coils for current and energy measurements.

Joint European Torus (JET)

This is a European funded project which opened in 2004 took 10 years to build.  JET, the Joint European Torus, is situated at the Culham Science Centre, Oxfordshire, UK. It is collectively used by EURATOM Associations from more than 20 European countries.

The JET device is currently the world’s largest Tokamak. The JET facilities include plasma heating systems capable of delivering up to 30 megawatts of power, an Active Gas Handling System and a Beryllium Handling Facility providing JET with a unique Tritium and Beryllium capability, respectively.

My company manufactured general fabrications and the numerous magnetic coils that provide the magnetic field and other coils for current and energy measurements.