Jacobs to provide engineering support for key UK fusion power programmes

19/07/2024

Jacobs has been selected by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) for its multi-supplier Engineering Design Services (EDS) framework.

Jacobs has been appointed to all capability areas on the four-year framework, valued at up to £9 million, which supports the development of a UK industrial supply chain capability by allowing the companies to work closely with UKAEA as it undertakes fusion energy research.

“The EDS framework is intended to support UKAEA with the delivery of strategically important tasks alongside routine support. It allows us to work collaboratively with UKAEA and its supply chain to find solutions to some of their most complex engineering problems,” said Andy White, Vice President of Jacobs. “We support UKAEA on the existing framework in four capability areas and we have now built on this to expand our role and become a full-service supplier.”

EDS covers mechanical, process, electrical, control and instrumentation and systems engineering, as well as computer-based modelling and simulations, and specialist nuclear services ranging from laboratory research to decommissioning and waste management. 

	The control room for the Joint European Torus (JET) tokamak                                                                      Image courtesy of EUROfusion

UKAEA manages the UK fusion programme at the Culham Campus, one of the world’s leading fusion research laboratories. Its programmes include the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP), which aims to build a prototype power plant by 2040 to demonstrate the ability to generate net electricity. This is a key milestone towards harnessing fusion, the reaction that powers the sun and stars, as a new source of safe, clean and near-limitless energy.

Jacobs is also delivering a range of technological and engineering innovation and support to ITER, the world’s largest fusion energy project based in Saint-Paul-lès-Durance, France, and now employs more than 350 people working on fusion around the world, in positions ranging from research and development to project delivery, creating new opportunities for physicists, scientific researchers, project managers and engineers in all disciplines.

“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.”

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