Fusion Industry Challenges – Prototype Development SBRI Competition

UK organisations can access funding to develop solutions for fuel cycle services that use lithium.

This competition is administered by Innovate UK (IUK), the UK’s innovation agency, and funded by the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). This is one of IUK’s Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competitions.

The aim of this competition is to encourage innovation in the development of lithium in an economic, sustainable and scalable fusion energy fuel cycle. Projects can focus on one or more of the following:

Isotopic Enrichment

• Technologies to enhance the proportion of lithium-6 isotope, crucial for fuel sustainability and tritium production in fusion power designs.
• Demand for lithium enrichment services in fusion reactors worldwide.

Tritium Extraction

• Technologies for efficient and fast extraction of tritium from lithium breeding material to fuel ongoing deuterium-tritium reactions.
• Performance parameters include extraction rate, continuous operation, availability of recovered tritium and energy cost.

Conversion and Manufacturing

• Technologies to convert lithium from existing supply chains into suitable forms for isotopic enrichment or tritium breeding systems.
• Considerations include input and output forms, recycling potential, and a sustainable and competitive supply chain.

Projects can include prototyping, demonstrating, piloting, testing and validation of new or improved products, processes or services in environments representative of real-life operating conditions. The primary objective is to make further technical improvements on products, processes or services that are not substantially set.