Oxford Sigma’s new collaboration with Gauss Fusion is a prime example of the company’s strategy to support fusion through partnerships on materials development and solutions. Oxford Sigma strives for practical, yet ambitious, targets in fusion materials selection that is fusion-approach agnostic. This pragmatism and integrity are at Oxford Sigma’s core to ensure arrival at sound design choices, advanced materials systems, and strategies that enable both the company and key partners to achieve the quickest route to de-risking fusion deployment.

Gauss Fusion is a young Greentech company specialising in magnet-based fusion energy. It wants to bring fusion energy to market maturity with the help of efficient structures in a realistic timeframe by the early 2040s and make it industrially scalable. Unlike other fusion companies, Gauss Fusion is characterised by the close integration of top European research and green tech industry expertise.

“We are delighted to have formed this collaboration with Gauss Fusion on developing their fusion materials solutions for power stations in order to accelerate Gauss’ deployment in Europe. Such collaborations are important to Oxford Sigma’s mission to provide suitable, and practical, solutions in fusion materials.”

~Dr Thomas Davis, Co-Founder and CEO of Oxford Sigma

“The fusion environment is an extremely demanding one, which requires careful materials selection, and manufacturing scale-up and qualification of new alloys for safe and reliable operation. Gauss Fusion aims to make use of the best available data in all our engineering decisions, and this collaboration with Oxford Sigma provides access to sectoral expertise and an approach which matches our own.”

~Dr Richard Kembleton, Head of Device for Gauss Fusion

About Oxford Sigma

Oxford Sigma is a Fusion Technology company with a vision to tackle energy security and climate change by accelerating the commercialisation of fusion energy. Our mission is to deliver materials technology, materials solutions, and fusion design services. Oxford Sigma aims to produce advanced materials technologies, agnostic to fusion approach, for the materials ecosystem. Our fusion core materials are engineered to enable longer term operations for fusion pilot plants, with the aim of roll out to the first-of-a-kind commercial power stations. Oxford Sigma is internationally recognised as a key fusion materials and technological leader.

Get in touch at info@oxfordsigma.com

About Gauss Fusion

Gauss Fusion’s mission is to accelerate the industrialisation of fusion energy, to make it scalable and to turn it into a reality in Europe. The green energy company was founded in 2022 by private industrial companies from France, Germany, Italy and Spain. It brings together a combination of cutting-edge scientific research and industrial expertise in fusion energy that is unique in Europe. The company is thus playing a key role in shaping a sustainable and independent energy supply in Europe with stable prices and high availability.

The founding companies are among the leading European companies in the fusion industry. As such, they have decades of experience, expertise and an extensive track record in the manufacture of components and technologies for the industry.

At the same time, Gauss Fusion combines its entrepreneurial and engineering expertise with the excellence of Europe’s leading research institutes. The company is closely linked to science and co-operates with renowned research institutes. These include CERN in Switzerland, the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), ENEA in Italy and Eindhoven University of Technology.

https://gauss-fusion.com

 As Oxford Sigma enters its sixth year of operations, the change is part of the company’s strategic plan to accelerate its materials technology development for extreme environments, including future fusion powerplants, and to provide the framework for the company’s continued growth. 

 The fusion industry has developed significantly since Oxford Sigma’s formation in 2019 with a rapid expansion in both the private and publicly funded space. As materials and manufacturing technology specialists within fusion energy, the company’s team represents the diversity of backgrounds required to address this multi-disciplinary integration challenge. Oxford Sigma’s priorities are to develop the enabling materials technologies and solutions for future fusion powerplants, whilst supporting the fusion community in its development. 

The new management structure enables a new chapter of Oxford Sigma’s growth and is as follows: 

• James Dimitriou, Chairman (effective from 19th February 2024)
• Dr Thomas Davis, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer  
• Jonathan Musgrove, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer 
• Dr Alasdair Morrison, Chief Technology Officer 

Alasdair joined Oxford Sigma in 2022, from a background of fusion material design and manufacturing development. He obtained a DPhil (PhD) from the University of Oxford in copper alloy development for fusion application, and honed his manufacturing research and development experience at The Manufacture Technology Centre, part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, and Qdot Technology Ltd. He brings deep technical experience in materials processing and component manufacturing, with a career focus of extreme environments and critical components. 

James has almost 20 years’ experience within the Tech and Financial sectors. He has a strong background as an entrepreneur focusing on developing and scaling up novel IP, having founded, ran, and successfully exited a tech accelerator to a publicly listed Swiss investment company. He is also currently Investment Principal at Oxford Innovation Finance and previously spent over 10 years advising and supporting early-stage growth businesses with investment, funding, and technology commercialisation, initially starting his career within the finance industry, across multiple areas including equity sales and corporate finance. James holds a Masters in Finance from the University of Surrey.  

Commenting on the Board changes, Thomas Davis, Co-founder and CEO, said: “New opportunities and exciting challenges are ahead as Oxford Sigma enters 2024 with a promising new management structure. I am pleased to continue leading Oxford Sigma as the CEO and work with James as the Chairman. Together with Jonathan and Alasdair, we have a strong and complementary leadership team that will drive Oxford Sigma’s growth and innovation in the years to come.  We are confident that this new management structure will enable us to achieve our goals to develop key materials technologies and solutions as well as our mission to empower the global fusion community to make commercial fusion power a reality.   

 About Oxford Sigma 

Oxford Sigma is a Fusion Technology company with a vision to tackle energy security and climate change by accelerating the commercialisation of fusion energy. Our mission is to deliver materials technology, materials solutions, and fusion design services. Oxford Sigma aims to produce advanced materials technologies, agnostic to fusion approach, for the materials ecosystem. Our fusion core materials are engineered to enable longer term operations for fusion pilot plants, with the aim of roll out to the first-of-a-kind commercial power stations. Oxford Sigma is internationally recognised as a key fusion materials and technological leader.  

 Get in touch at info@oxfordsigma.com  

Oxford Sigma has been supporting the development of a construction code and standard for fusion energy with ASME BPVC Section III Division 4 for multiple years.  As Chair, Dr Davis will be leading the development efforts to enable Division 4 to become the global standard on pressure systems in fusion energy covering topics such as design, materials qualification, examination, and requirements.

ASME BPVC provides the design and construction rules of boilers and pressure vessels worldwide, covering both nuclear and non-nuclear devices. The documents are written and maintained by chosen volunteers based on their technical expertise. In July 2023, ASME BPVC Section III (Rules for Construction of Nuclear Facility Components) Division 4 (Fusion Energy Devices) published its first volume for the 2023 Code Edition.

The volume provides requirements covering fusion energy-related components and their interactions. Related support structures, including metallic and non-metallic materials, containment or confinement structures, and in-vessel components, are also covered. Additionally, the rules contain requirements for materials, design, fabrication, testing, examination, inspection, certification, and stamping.

“It is an honour and pleasure to be appointed Chair of the ASME BPVC Section III Division 4 “Fusion Energy Devices” construction code and standards. My mission during my term as Chair is to ensure the pressure system design code and standards become the go-to for fusion energy systems for the future. If you are interested in supporting Division 4, do reach out!”

~Dr Thomas Davis, Co-Founder and CTO of Oxford Sigma

In connection to the newly published volume, Dr Davis presented its implications at the 23rd Symposium on Fusion Engineering Conference on “Fusion Codes & Standards ASME BPVC Section III Division 4” in Oxford in July. Dr Davis also authored a peer-reviewed paper titled “The need for codes and standards in nuclear fusion energy” in the special collection, “The emergence of Private Fusion Enterprises” in the Journal of Fusion Energy in May 2023. The article is available open access here.

Oxford Sigma’s mission is to develop advanced materials solutions and technologies which comply with the latest standards to ensure suitable deployment within a commercial fusion power station. As part of Oxford Sigma’s contribution to fusion codes and standards, the company led a workshop at the ASME Code Week on the development of Division 4 “Fusion Energy Devices” in November 2023.

If your company or institution is interested in Division 4, please contact Oxford Sigma directly through email, via  info@oxfordsigma.com.

Oxford Sigma tackles energy security and climate change by accelerating the commercialisation of fusion energy. Oxford Sigma’s mission is to deliver materials technology, materials solutions, and fusion design services in order to accelerate the commercialisation of fusion energy. Oxford Sigma is internationally recognised as a key fusion materials and technological leader within the market.

Get in touch at info@oxfordsigma.com

The scientific publication is found in the Fusion Engineering and Design journal. It provides the first stage proof of concept of the team’s optimisation. The publication is available here and cited as:

Anderton, et al. Fusion Engineering and Design 197 (2023) 114073

This publication supports Oxford Sigma’s recent patent on isotopic tailoring of tungsten for fusion.

Nuclear fusion has the potential to become a carbon-free, abundant energy source for both the electricity and hydrogen market of the future. A fusion power station will require the use of plasma facing components that shield the machines’ structural components from fusion plasma erosion, high temperatures and radiation damage.

One outstanding functional materials challenge for fusion energy is the plasma-facing components (PFCs) material’s selection. Fusion plasma temperatures of up to 109 °C require PFC materials to operate with temperatures in excess of 1000 °C under normal operation, and potentially higher during off-normal events. In addition, fusion plasmas produce high energy neutrons that pass through the wall material, interacting with the nuclei within the material’s structure, producing displacements and transmutation of isotopes. Tungsten is the leading PFC material choice because it meets the materials requirements for PFCs by possessing a high melting temperature (3422 °C), a high thermal conductivity, high plasma sputtering threshold, and a high temperature operational window.

A side effect of the use of tungsten in neutron irradiation environments such as fusion is the transmutation to rhenium and osmium, which are known to degrade the mechanical and thermal properties. In Oxford Sigma’s research, nuclear simulations were used to investigate a strategy of selective isotopic enrichment and/or depletion of tungsten isotopes to supress the formation of rhenium and osmium in a representative first-wall monoblock design. The research found that rhenium and osmium production can be reduced by up to three orders of magnitude compared to natural tungsten by depleting tungsten-186 isotope. This work is part of a wider strategy within Oxford Sigma to develop material solutions for fusion power stations.

“Oxford Sigma is striving to provide optimisations for issues which present significant challenges to the deployment of commercial fusion energy. This research is a step towards improving component lifetimes and reducing waste in future fusion reactors, thus making fusion more sustainable commercial option.”

~ Mark Anderton, Nuclear Engineer, Oxford Sigma.

“Novel materials are required to tackle the extreme conditions in fusion reactors. This proof-of-concept study undertaken in collaboration with Oxford Sigma explores an exciting avenue for supressing the production of detrimental elements under irradiation“

~ Dr Matthew Lloyd, Research Fellow at University of Birmingham.

Oxford Sigma tackles energy security and climate change by accelerating the commercialisation of fusion energy. Oxford Sigma’s mission is to deliver materials technology, materials solutions, and fusion design services in order to accelerate the commercialisation of fusion energy. Oxford Sigma is internationally recognised as a key fusion materials and technological leader within the market.

Get in touch at info@oxfordsigma.com

Project LiFTOFF (Lithium Facility by Oxford Sigma for Fusion) has been awarded to Oxford Sigma through the UKAEA Fusion Industry Programme. This Programme forms part of the Government’s support for the UK’s fusion industry by developing the necessary technology and skills for the future global fusion power plant market.

Oxford Sigma are developing a liquid lithium loop facility to evaluate the impact of liquid lithium exposure on materials used in breeder blanket components, critical for the design and commercialisation of fusion power devices.

The contract has strong partnerships with Bangor University, First Light Fusion, The University of Birmingham, and Nuvia who are providing key expertise, experience, and resources to the team.

“Delivering fusion energy is one of the great scientific and engineering challenges of our time. The Fusion Industry Programme is supporting businesses to overcome these challenges and help make fusion a commercial reality. These organisations have been awarded contracts after successfully demonstrating the feasibility of their concepts through earlier stages of the Fusion Industry Programme and will now develop their technologies to the ‘proof of concept’ stage.”

~ Tim Bestwick, UKAEA’s Chief Development Officer

“LiFTOFF will play a key part in the development of fusion energy by enabling advancement in the necessary materials knowledge needed for engineering design and qualification of materials for powerplants. Moreover, it is a necessary step in the maturation of fusion energy, to deliver the new engineering knowledge and material solutions that are necessary for successful commercial deployment. We are proud that our technology has been supported through the Fusion Industry Programme’s second phase and are looking forward to building the necessary technology solutions and know-how through this ‘proof-of-concept’ stage with our formidable partners.”

~ Dr Alasdair Morrison, Oxford Sigma’s Technology Manager

“This project works towards de-risking the engineering and design of a fusion power plant, and First Light is delighted to be a part of it. If we are to put commercial fusion energy on the grid as quickly as possible, we must tackle the engineering challenges as well as the core physics of fusion. First Light is pursuing plans for the development of a power plant in the 2030s.”

~ Jorge Fradera, Head of Power Plant at First Light Fusion

“Bangor University are excited to be part of this team developing systems to make fusion power possible. Our experience with Liquid Metal systems and fundamental fusion materials development is being accelerated and leveraged by the excellent team that Oxford-Sigma has assembled.“

~ Professor Simon Middleburgh, of the Nuclear Futures Institute at Bangor University

“Nuvia are delighted to continue our relationship with Oxford Sigma in developing liquid lithium testing capabilities within the UK, collaborating across industry and academia to tackle a key fusion industry challenge and provide a route to enabling low carbon energy production.”

~ Adrian Davis-Johnston, Head of Research, Development and Innovation at Nuvia

“The development of liquid lithium testing capabilities and new high-performance materials is critical to the realisation of fusion energy. The University of Birmingham and Sandy Knowles’ Materials for Extremes group are proud to be a part of the LiFTOFF team that are tackling this important challenge. We look forward working with industry and academia in the team Oxford Sigma have assembled to accelerate the development of exciting new materials.”

~ Dr Matthew Lloyd, Research Fellow at the School of Metallurgy and Materials, University of Birmingham.

LiFTOFF seeks to evaluate the effect of liquid lithium exposure on both corrosion resistance and mechanical performance of different materials that will be used in breeder blanket materials. Nuclear fusion requires two hydrogen isotopes as fuel: deuterium and tritium. Deuterium can be easily extracted from seawater (about 33g per tonne) while tritium is rare and difficult to source due to its short half-life (12.3 years). Therefore, tritium is proposed to be bred inside the fusion reactor in a component called breeder blanket.

To produce tritium, liquid lithium must be exposed to neutrons coming from the fusion reactions and must be contained in the breeder blanket for further separation from the remaining lithium. How the liquid lithium interacts and degrades the mechanical performance of the breeder blanket components could largely determine the success of commercial fusion power plants.

The present project will develop a liquid lithium loop facility able to expose materials to similar conditions that will be faced in breeder blankets, raise the TRL of Oxford Sigma’s proprietary liquid lithium resistant materials, and establish a lithium corrosion database.

Map of Fusion Industry Programme contract recipients

If your company or institution is interested in liquid lithium materials compatibility or other materials related topics, please do reach out to Oxford Sigma on info@oxfordsigma.com.

The ASME Boiler Code Week is a forum for business leaders and policymakers to discuss high profile topics related to the ASME BPVC concerning the design, fabrication, and inspection of boilers, pressure vessels, and nuclear power plant technologies. Code Week committee meetings are open to the public.

ASME BPVC Section III (Rules for Construction of Nuclear Facility Components) Division 4 (Fusion Energy Devices) has published the first volume in July 2023 for the 2023 Code Edition. This marks the first publication within ASME BPVC dedicated to fusion energy devices. An updated Roadmap for Division 4 will be published in late 2023 that outlines the required research development in methodology, data needs for manufacture, maintenance, fusion materials properties, and routes to qualification for pressure boundary materials (for the use in fusion designs developed by the community). This workshop was on Monday 13th November at the ASME Code Week in Houston, TX, and was led by Oxford Sigma. The workshop provided an overview of Division 4, its roadmap, a technical deep dive, and outlines the pathway to become an invaluable tool for fusion energy.

In connection to the newly published volume, Dr Davis presented its implications at the 23rd Symposium on Fusion Engineering Conference on “Fusion Codes & Standards ASME BPVC Section III Division 4” in Oxford in July. Dr Davis also authored a peer-reviewed paper titled “The need for codes and standards in nuclear fusion energy” in the special collection, “The emergence of Private Fusion Enterprises” in the Journal of Fusion Energy in May 2023. The article is available open access here.

Oxford Sigma’s mission is to develop advanced materials solutions and technologies which comply with the latest standards to ensure suitable deployment within a commercial fusion power station.

“ASME (The American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Code Week in Houston, TX, has now concluded. The Division 4 workshop held in the Code Week by Section III has fired the starting gun. Fusion Energy now has a dedicated pressure vessel design code under BPVC Section III Division 4. The next task is to develop this code to become fit for purpose in supporting future fusion power stations. If anyone is interested in the development and how to get involved, please do reach out to me.”

~ Dr Thomas Davis, Co-Founder and CTO of Oxford Sigma

If your company or institution is interested in Division 4, please do reach out to Oxford Sigma on info@oxfordsigma.com.

About Oxford Sigma
Oxford Sigma is a Fusion Technology company with a vision to tackle energy security and climate change by accelerating the commercialisation of fusion energy. Our mission is to deliver materials technology, materials solutions, and fusion design services. Oxford Sigma aims to produce advanced materials technologies, agnostic to fusion approach, for the materials ecosystem. Our fusion core materials are engineered to enable longer term operations for fusion pilot plants, with the aim of roll out to the first-of-a-kind commercial power stations. Oxford Sigma is internationally recognised as a key fusion materials and technological leader. The company operates in the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, Canada, and Japan, with offices in the UK and USA. Our roots and headquarters are in Oxford, UK.

Get in touch at info@oxfordsigma.com