Author: Power Peak Digest Team Pub Date: January 21, 2025

Photo: The LIBRTI facility: illustration with labels. Credit: United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.
The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) has announced a £200 million ($244 million) investment in the Lithium Breeding Tritium Innovation (LIBRTI) programme, a key part of the broader Fusion Futures project. The programme aims to advance fusion fuel development and strengthen industry capacity through global collaboration.
One of its main goals is to demonstrate controlled tritium breeding, a critical process for future fusion power plants. To achieve this, UKAEA will acquire a neutron source for a testbed facility at Culham Campus in Oxfordshire. The programme also includes £9 million for small-scale tritium breeding and digital simulation experiments running until March 2026.
The fusion process will rely on deuterium and tritium to generate energy, with tritium being scarce and requiring sustainable production methods, such as breeding it in a lithium-containing blanket. This blanket absorbs heat and shields components from radiation damage.
Shine Technologies will provide the 14 MeV deuterium-tritium fusion system in 2027, serving as the neutron source for LIBRTI. Their CEO, Greg Piefer, emphasized the significance of this partnership in advancing fusion energy, with their system already achieving up to 50 trillion fusion reactions per second.
The programme includes a robust digital strategy to model and optimize future tritium breeder blanket systems, ensuring the success of fusion energy systems.