Nuclear Fusion
Fusion - the process by which nuclei join together to form heavier nuclei and energy - powers the sun. On earth, it has the potential to be a large-scale source of clean power.
The world's largest fusion experiment to date (JET) is located at Culham, in Oxfordshire; the next step on the road to fusion energy is a power-station scale experimental reactor (ITER), currently being built in France.
Oxford's Department of Materials has specialist expertise in the characterisation and modelling of fusion reactor materials - understanding how they will respond in extreme environments, especially high neutron fluxes and high temperatures. This research benefits from access to some of the world's most sophisticated instruments (including aberration corrected transmission electron microscopy, atom probe and nanoscale spectroscopy).
Researchers in the Department of Physics are investigating laser and plasma-based approaches to fusion.
Researchers working on aspects of Nuclear Fusion
| Professor Patrick Grant | fusion reactor materials; supercapacitors; smart composites |
| Dr Gianluca Gregori | Inertial fusion energy |
| Dr John Murphy | silicon solar cell optimisation; fusion reactor materials |
| Professor David Pettifor, FRS | materials modelling |
| Professor Steve Roberts | nuclear reactor materials |
| Professor George Smith, FRS | nuclear reactor materials |
| Professor Justin Wark | laser-plasma interactions |
