AtkinsRéalis, a fully integrated professional services and project management company with offices around the world, has been selected to develop the Pre-Concept Design for Type One Energy’s Fusion Pilot Plant (FPP).
As part of Type One Energy’s FusionDirect program, the commercial-scale FPP will use stellarator technology to demonstrate its potential to generate clean, safe and affordable power from fusion energy.
“Fusion has the potential to provide the world with a virtually limitless and environmentally responsible source of power to advance the global energy transition,” said Joe St. Julian, President, Nuclear, AtkinsRéalis. “By combining AtkinsRéalis’ global fusion experience and world-class design and engineering services with Type One Energy’s stellarator technology, together we’re advancing the commercial deployment of fusion energy.”
AtkinsRéalis’ UK-based fusion team will work alongside U.S. capabilities and expertise to provide multi-disciplinary engineering services, to develop the full plant requirements, pre-conceptual facility designs, and a preliminary site layout. Working in close collaboration with Type One Energy, AtkinsRéalis will integrate established project delivery solutions alongside novel fusion technologies, seeking to de-risk the delivery of the fusion plant while optimizing cost.
“This program of work is the first step in a strategic partnership with Type One Energy as they commercialise their technology and progress the potential of fusion to power the US’ energy transition,” said Jason Dreisbach, Director of Advanced Energy Technologies at AtkinsRéalis. “With our global fusion expertise, we are uniquely positioned to support the transition of Type One Energy’s fusion technology into a commercially viable and sustainable source of energy to power a net zero future.”
Earlier this year, Type One announced the selection of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Bull Run Fossil Plant in Clinton, Tennessee, as the building site for its prototype, a machine named Infinity One. This device will validate key design features that will then be incorporated into the FPP. Both Infinity One and the Fusion Pilot Plant will use Type One’s stellarator technology, a series of state-of-the-art superconducting magnets to control plasma with temperatures of over 100 million Celsius, generating a continuous fusion reaction and releasing energy to generate electricity.
“We selected AtkinsRéalis because of its subject matter expertise across multiple disciplines, including engineering, planning, and deployment, as well as its accumulated knowledge and market presence in the emerging fusion technology space,” said Gregg Schneider, Type One Energy’s Vice President of Global Partnerships and Supply Chain Management. “We believe that developing long term business and functional level relationships will serve both parties as additional work scopes are contemplated over the next decade.”
AtkinsRéalis has a long history of collaborative efforts in nuclear new build and fusion energy research and development around the world. The Company’s well-established fusion capabilities include partnerships with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), and its role supporting the delivery of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Cadarache, France since 2010. AtkinsRéalis’ international experience in supporting the energy transition is advancing the successful commercialization and development of carbon net zero energy technologies that will power the future of our planet and its people.
