After a 12-month engineering pause and upgrade, UKAEA's Materials Detritiation Facility (MDF) operations have restarted. Outputs have already contributed towards groundbreaking research on the materials removed from the Joint European Torus (JET) facility.
In the last three years of plasma operations, JET’s deuterium-tritium (DT) experiments resulted in residual tritium within the tokamak’s walls and internal components.
By recovering tritium, UKAEA’s waste teams can greatly reduce disposal costs for materials such as tungsten, beryllium, inconel, steel, copper and carbon-fibre
composite. On initial removal from JET, these materials are classified as
Intermediate Level Waste. By removing tritium, they can be reclassified as Low Level Waste. This is up to 10 times less expensive to dispose of and it can even be recycled for future fusion or fission machines.
UKAEA's flagship machine, MAST Upgrade, has completed its most ambitious series of experiments to date.
The machine achieved its highest plasma pressure, whilst overcoming control problems which are considered essential prerequisites for commercial fusion power.
The fifth series of experiments conducted on the MAST Upgrade machine, at UKAEA’s Culham Campus in Oxfordshire, ran through 2025 and 2026 and produced more than 1,100 fusion pulses.
Over the coming months, Jet Decommissioning and Repurposing (JDR) will be trialling asset-based decommissioning in the next phase of its work programme in three areas of the JET estate, the same three areas that were part of the infrastructure, channelling power to JET during its operational days.
JDR has contracted Ramco (UK) to undertake this work. Ramco's extensive client base includes the Ministry of Defence, Government Departments and other established organisations.
After a 12-month engineering pause and upgrade, UKAEA's Materials Detritiation Facility (MDF) operations have restarted. Outputs have already contributed towards groundbreaking research on the materials removed from the Joint European Torus (JET) facility.
In the last three years of plasma operations, JET’s deuterium-tritium (DT) experiments resulted in residual tritium within the tokamak’s walls and internal components.
By recovering tritium, UKAEA’s waste teams can greatly reduce disposal costs for materials such as tungsten, beryllium, inconel, steel, copper and carbon-fibre
Intermediate Level Waste. By removing tritium, they can be reclassified as Low Level Waste. This is up to 10 times less expensive to dispose of and it can even be recycled for future fusion or fission machines.
UKAEA's flagship machine, MAST Upgrade, has completed its most ambitious series of experiments to date.
The machine achieved its highest plasma pressure, whilst overcoming control problems which are considered essential prerequisites for commercial fusion power.
The fifth series of experiments conducted on the MAST Upgrade machine, at UKAEA’s Culham Campus in Oxfordshire, ran through 2025 and 2026 and produced more than 1,100 fusion pulses.
Over the coming months, Jet Decommissioning and Repurposing (JDR) will be trialling asset-based decommissioning in the next phase of its work programme in three areas of the JET estate, the same three areas that were part of the infrastructure, channelling power to JET during its operational days.
JDR has contracted Ramco (UK) to undertake this work. Ramco's extensive client base includes the Ministry of Defence, Government Departments and other established organisations.