UK Inertial Fusion Energy Network support and engagement provided by the York Plasma Institute
Lead Research Organisation:
University of York
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
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Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Kathryn Lancaster (Principal Investigator) |
| Description | This grant helps to support the UK IFE network and is linked to funding for the UK fusion community directed through both York and Imperial College. The York component directly funds Dr Kate Lancaster in order to provide a support and engagement for the network in a number of key areas. The areas specified are the UK IFE survey, stakeholder engagement (including a link to UK industry), management of network communication, organisation, and project coordination. UK IFE survey Analysis of a preliminary community survey has given us an indication of where our strengths in inertial fusion energy and related scientific disciplines lie across the breadth of the UK. A second more detailed follow up survey was issued towards the end of the grant. This asked questions regarding what topic areas groups were working in and what percentage of time spent, where the predominant sources of funding were coming from, IFE training programs, destinations of people trained in IFE related areas, who we collaborate with globally, what industry work on, barriers to industrial participation, and the future of IFE work in the UK. This information has been used in the final network report and will be used to inform the future shape and direction of the IFE community in the coming years. Stakeholder engagement Activity is healthy - the kick off meeting attracted over 75 attendees from 11 universities, 11 companies, and 7 large scale laboratories, together with invited members of the wiser international community from the US and France. There were also key research council members in attendance. She has attended a large number of conferences and networking events to engage industry and other organisations in order to promote fusion energy. Kate has also been reaching out the MCF community and was invited to speak about ICF to key members of the EFDA (now EUROfusion) communications network in Lausanne. This raised awareness of the network, the need to work together, and gave them information about spokespeople for the IFE Network. She also regularly meets with the MCF community as part of her ongoing role help UK industry to win work from ITER. Network communication The network website has been successfully delivered, operating as a first port of call for those wanting to know more about the general landscape of IFE in the UK. This website can be further developed to reflect the changing community need and will act as a legacy to the project. The website can be found here http://uk-ife.org.uk/ Organisation/project coordination Dr Lancaster organised/assisted in organising a number of the network meetings - a day-long all hands meeting at the Royal Society to kick off the project in November 2013, small group section meeting on "Inertial Fusion Energy plasma physics" which was held in Feb 2014, meeting on "diagnostics and experiments on large scale facilities" at York in June 2015, a meeting on "Alternative schemes" in Belfast, and an all hands meeting at IC. |
| Exploitation Route | Industrial engagement: Attendees from 11 different companies attended the kick off meeting and engagement of new companies is a continual process. The objective is to raise awareness at this stage and bring industry close to IFE. This means industry will be ready and engaged in IFE/ fusion when they are needed to move fusion towards commercial energy production. Outreach: The network funded the creation of a set of demonstrations that were part of the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition stand run by the Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies (CIFS). A number of these demonstrations were also used for Kate Lancaster's Royal Institution Friday evening discourse on high power lasers and IFE. They have also been extensively used around events in the UK at schools. Based on this we constructed four new demonstrations that will be distributed around the key groups in the UK. This activity is and will continue to raise public awareness of IFE in the UK and globally. RCUK/Government policy: The kick off meeting hosted key figures from EPSRC, STFC, and CCFE. The network has also provided data to the EPSRC on grants awarded in IFE and related areas. The network was also represented (by Kate Lancaster and Roland Smith) at the EPSRC Fusion /Fission review. We have continued to inform and engage these key people throughout the process so they have a greater understanding of the findings and conclusions of the project. |
| Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Electronics Energy Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology |
| Description | The industrial engagement activity, even at this early stage is paramount both to realising the fusion mission and helping UK plc to grow. To realise commercial fusion requires a wide range of industries working from the earliest stage possible to build next step facilities and help develop the enabling technologies. Many of the companies engaged with so far have growing expertise in the magnetic confinement fusion (MCF) arena, especially work arising from ITER (the next step MCF fusion project under construction in Cadarache, France). There are many overlaps with this work and the type of technologies required to build a commercial IFE fusion reactor. The funding provided by the network has allowed us to begin coordinating outreach activity and generating new opportunities. The network funded the creation of a set of demonstrations that were part of the "Set the controls for the heart of the sun" Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition stand run by the Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies (CIFS). This is a very high profile activity and extra funding to produce excellent demonstrations helped to make the stand successful. A number of these demonstrations were also used for Kate Lancaster's Royal Institution Friday evening discourse on high power lasers and IFE. Based on this we constructed four new demonstrations that will be distributed around the key groups in the UK. The public understanding and support of fusion is very important, as is inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers in to a career in fusion. Since the project was completed the new demonstrations are held at York and Imperial for use by the wider community for outreach activities. They have been regularly used for various activities since this time. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2013 |
| Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Energy,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
| Impact Types | Societal |
| Description | Poster presentation on UK IFE to the EPSRC Energy SAC (24th Feb 2015) |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Title | UK IFE Community Survey for EPSRC |
| Description | The aim of this survey is understand more deeply the interests and capabilities of individual researchers, research groups and institutions in the UK who work in fields related to inertial fusion energy (IFE) and how this has evolved over the last three years. The context of this is an EPSRC funded exercise to develop a strategy and roadmap for future IFE and inertial confinement fusion (ICF) related research in the UK and its links to industry and technical spin out, advanced training, high-quality science and collaborations with major international partners. It will provide data to inform decision making by UK research Councils (RCUK, STFC, EPSRC etc), research institutions and UK Government. This survey follows on from a 2012 exercise conducted on behalf of EPSRC's Fusion Advisory Board. Our first study was initiated by the imminent prospect of fusion ignition at the US National Ignition Facility (NIF) and the expectation that this would trigger significant high-level interest and the need to respond rapidly to RCUK and UK Government regarding the UK's capabilities in fusion science and technology. Over the last three years NIF, the world's largest laser facility, has delivered high-power laser light to target with a quality at or above its original design specification, and a broad range of ICF and other physics experiments have been undertaken. A major advance achieved in this period was the first clear laboratory scale demonstration of alpha self heating. This is a regime in which nuclear processes driven by the laser reach the level where the energy they redeposit into the target bootstraps additional fusion reactions and further energy release, a critical step towards net energy gain However, fusion ignition and a demonstration of breakeven energy production has not yet been achieved, highlighting the technical and scientific challenges of IFE. This exercise takes place in the context of a lack of ignition to date on NIF and a challenging financial environment for UK science. This will make the case for a major new UK initiative in IFE or a dedicated experimental facility more difficult to champion. At the same time it highlights the impact that world leading UK science can have in addressing the pressing challenges of IFE, particularly when engaging with major international partners. Input was saught from academics and University groups, National Laboratories and UK industry. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This survey will inform development of a future UK IFE Strategy and be incorporated into a final report for EPSRC. |
| Description | Fun Palace - Stockton on Tees |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Fun palace concept can be found here http://funpalaces.co.uk/ - idea is for culture, science to be owned by the local people rather than be delivered too by remote folk. We set up series of demonstrations in stockton on tees (where the lead student was from) - including the "pop-o-matic" as developed as part of the IFE network grant. The audience were children who also had caring responsibilites, there were around 10-20 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Royal Institution family talk on lasers, Dr Kate Lancaster |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 300-400 people attended this special Family event (for ages 7+) on lasers at the Royal Institution. Lots of good interaction with children and their parents and received good feedback from audience members. Talk included demonstration of popomatic produced by the IFE network project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | School talk at Queen Elizabeth college, Darlington, Dr Kate Lancaster |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Between 50 and 100 members of school and general public attended the event which was a talk about lasers. Post the talk I chatted to the pupils about careers in science. Talk included demonstration of popomatic produced by the IFE network project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Talk about ICF at MCF communicators workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The network reached out the MCF community through Kate's work with the ITER community. Subsequently she was invited to speak about ICF to key members of the EFDA (now EUROfusion) communications network in Lausanne. This raised awareness of the network, the need to work together, and gave them information about spokespeople for the IFE Network |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Talk to school students about lasers at University of York, Dr Kate Lancaster |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | 25 students attended talk on lasers during an experiential week held at the University of York. Lots of questions and discussion after the talk. Talk included demonstration of popomatic produced by the IFE network project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | YorNight - York researchers night |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Yornight originally started as part of European researchers night and then eventually spun out as our own event. This suited us better as an institution as we had longer to plan. Departments in the university, staffed by researchers run a large series of demonstrations and displays associated with their research. We were there through the physics department and the Fusion CDT. The pop-o-matic (constructed under the auspices of this grant) was used as part of the demonstrations |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/yornight/2018/ |