The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) has renewed its four-year £9m Engineering Design Services Framework with nine companies.

Following the successful delivery of various engineering and design desk-based projects, the UKAEA will work closely with these companies for another four years in its mission to develop commercial fusion energy, while also helping to grow the UK economy by ensuring industry is fully involved.

The nine companies are Assystem, AtkinsRealis, Demcon, Eadon, Frazer Nash, IDOM, Jacobs, M5tec and Optima.

“This framework has enabled UKAEA to work collaboratively and with maximum efficiency with the fusion supply chain,” said Colette Broadwith, strategic procurement business partner for UKAEA.

“By renewing it for another four years, UKAEA can continue to leverage the engineering and technical expertise of our industrial partners to help accelerate fusion energy’s commercialisation, for the benefit of all,” she added.

The UKAEA also recently awarded £9.6m to three universities and three organisations to advance their concepts to support fusion energy development.

Full Matrix and the University of Manchester will be working on projects to accelerate fusion power plant design with next-generation digital tools.

AqSorption, IS-Instruments, the University of Bristol and the University of Liverpool will be working on projects to reduce fusion power plant fuel requirements with advanced production and handling technology for hydrogen isotopes.


  • Tim Bestwick, UKAEA’s chief development officer, said: “There has been significant progress in the development of fusion science, engineering and technology, both in the UK and globally.

“These organisations have been awarded contracts to scale up their projects after successfully developing their technologies to the ‘proof of concept’ stage.”

In November 2023, the UK signed a major deal with the US that aims to further cooperation on fusion technology by sharing resources and facilities. And in early May 2024, the UKAEA formed a partnership with the Czech Republic’s Centrum výzkumu Řež to build a test rig that will provide critical data in the development of the UK’s first fusion plant.

Extracted from IET website, read more here

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