Fusion Power (EPSRC CDT)

The Fusion Power CDT provides training from world-leading experts in a range of fusion-relevant disciplines, focusing on the aspects of materials science, and plasma physics, required to make fusion power a reality.

You will be trained to PhD-level (a PhD is known as a DPhil at Oxford) in disciplines related to fusion power. A significant number of fully-funded four-year full-time and eight-year part-time doctoral studentships are expected to be available each year. The programme expects to train at least 80 students over five intakes from 2024 to 2028.

The majority of projects are expected to collaborate with the wider fusion industry.

You will have access to a range of fusion materials facilities within Oxford and across the UK, and international links provide access to many other fusion devices around the world.

The combination of world-leading experts and world-class facilities creates an outstanding training environment for the next generation of fusion scientists - the generation who may exploit STEP, ITER, NIF and other international experiments to make fusion energy a reality.

Course outline

In Oxford, students will focus on materials for fusion power. You will train and study alongside students undertaking the DPhil in Materials, together forming an Oxford cohort of research students in materials.

The programme is normally carried out in four years of full-time study (or eight years of part-time study) under the supervision of an experienced member of staff. The first year (first two years for if you are studying part-time) will be focussed on training.

If studying full-time, you will spend the first eight months of the programme (the first 16 months if studying part-time), attending a number of technical fusion modules designed to provide the best possible platform for your substantial research project. Please note that the modules offered may change to reflect the latest academic thinking and expertise of staff. Some examples of modules include:

• Introduction to Fusion Plasmas
• Introduction to Materials
• Plasma Facing Technologies
• Irradiation Damage and Degradation
• Leadership and Research skills
• Tritium and the Fusion Fuel Cycle
• Plasma Surface Interactions Lab
• Functional and Superconducting Technologies
• Data Management and Software Skills
• Analytical Tools for Fusion Materials
• Manufacturing and Design Codes
• Multi-scale Computational materials engineering 

Many of these modules take place at the University of York, and all students will be based at the York Plasma Institute to begin with, following registration at the University of Oxford. There will also be a number of intensive one-week modules based at the other collaborating universities. Travel and subsistence funds are provided for attending the different week-long courses.

During your first year if studying full-time (your first two years if studying part-time) , you will also attend 'Frontiers of Fusion and Interfaces', an annual workshop which features fascinating talks by well-known and internationally-respected external speakers. Students from all cohorts (and their supervisors) will gather for a scientific meeting exploring a range of fusion issues and how they link to related fields, such as fission, advanced instrumentation, technological plasmas, and more.

The remaining three years of the full-time programme (six years if studying part-time) will be spent conducting research. A wide range of exciting DPhil projects is available and they are listed on the Department of Materials website under Fusion Power DPhil projects.

Fusion materials research at the University of Oxford

Research interests in Oxford's Department of Materials extend over most branches of materials science, as well as some aspects of solid state physics and chemistry. These include the study of a wide range of materials of relevance in advanced technological applications, including metals and alloys, composites, semi- and super-conductors, polymers, biomaterials, ceramics and materials for quantum information processing.

Much of the research is carried out in close collaboration with industry. World-leading research takes place on:

• the characterisation of materials, where there is emphasis on electron microscopy and related techniques
• processing and manufacturing of materials
• modelling of materials, where there is attention to both structures and processes
• properties of materials
• energy materials, including those for batteries, nuclear fusion and photovoltaics
• quantum information processing, which includes groups working on experimental studies, theory and modelling.

The plasma-facing components and breeding blanket of any future fusion tokamak will be subjected to one of the most extreme engineering environments possible. Materials will experience temperatures of up to 1500K in steady state and 3300K in transient events, and irradiation with 14MeV neutrons, causing displacement damage, transmutation giving rise to compositional changes, and internal H and He generation, plasma facing surfaces also can have  high erosion rates due to interactions with the fusion plasma. Ideally, the materials should not retain tritium or themselves transmute to long-lived radioactive isotopes. For fusion to be feasible as an economic power source, the materials must be able to survive these conditions, retaining usable thermal and mechanical properties, for five years or more.

Materials of current interest include special 'reduced activation' steels, tungsten alloys and composites, ceramic composites for neutron shielding, silicon carbide and high-temperature superconductors.

The University offers a range of projects, both experimental and modelling, on the processing, joining, microstructure, mechanical properties, and resistance to radiation damage of these materials.

Projects will use a range of specialised research techniques, usually in combination:

• advanced processing, coating and joining methods (mechanical alloying, rapid solidification, spray forming, additive manufacture, friction-stir welding)
• irradiation of materials by high-energy ion-beams, protons and neutrons.
• liquid metal corrosion
• characterisation of superconducting materials
• electron microscopy of microstructures, and radiation damage effects, including in-situ irradiations, and field-ion microscopy of radiation damage
• microanalysis by atom-probe tomography and electron-optical methods
• X-ray diffraction including use of the diamond light source mechanical testing, including micromechanics, over a wide temperature range
• computer modelling of radiation damage effects, deformation and microstructural development.

An overview of the provision for research students in the Department of Materials can be found at the Summary of Provision for Materials Research Students webpage. Also available is Guidance on Supervision Arrangements.

Attendance

The full-time course is usually studied over four years. The part-time course is usually studied over eight years.

Resources to support your study

The department has excellent and wide-ranging research resources including:

• a world-class suite of electron microscopy facilities including a JEOL ARM analytical STEM and two Zeiss Merlin ultrahigh resolution SEMs optimised for EBSD and EDX analysis, together with a number of supporting and training instruments. Much of this equipment is installed in the David Cockayne Centre for Electron Microscopy;
• additional electron microscopy facilities are available at the national electron Physical Science Imaging Centre;
• extensive further facilities for characterising materials including, for example, AFM, XPS, and Raman microscopy;
• advanced sample preparation and micromachining facilities including a Zeiss NVision 40 FIB/SEM and three other FIB instruments;
• clean room facilities;
• microhardness measurement facilities (at high temperatures and at the nm scale);
• special processing or manufacturing facilities for ceramics, carbon nanomaterials, rapidly solidified materials and devices such as novel batteries
• superb facilities for 3-D atom probe analysis (including LEAP 5000XS and LEAP 5000XR);
• an alloy processing and mechanical properties laboratory, for aerospace and nuclear materials; and
• a wide range of specialist modelling software and if appropriate for your research project, access to Oxford's Advanced Research Computing facilities.

The department’s Institute for Industrial Materials and Manufacturing provides pilot scale facilities for the manufacture of alloys, polymer and ceramic coatings, prototype optoelectronic, semiconductor, superconductor and sensor devices and novel metallurgical nano-scale materials.

The Oxford Materials Characterisation Service provides a major suite of equipment for the characterisation of materials used in microtechnology and nanotechnology.

In addition to the excellent central and college library provision, there is a specialist Materials Science Library housed within the department.

Supervision

The allocation of graduate supervision for this course is the responsibility of the Department of Materials and it is not always possible to accommodate the preferences of incoming graduate students to work with a particular member of staff. Under exceptional circumstances a supervisor may be found outside the Department of Materials.

You will usually meet with your supervisor approximately every two to three weeks.

Assessment

All students will be initially admitted to the status of Probationer Research Student (PRS). Normally after six terms as a full-time PRS student (and normally by the fourth term), and 12 terms as a part-time PRS students, you will be expected to apply for transfer of status from Probationer Research Student to DPhil status.

A successful transfer of status from PRS to DPhil status will require completion of the taught aspects of the Fusion Power course and a report on the first six months of work on your DPhil project if studying full-time (first 12 months of work if studying part-time).

If successful at transfer, you will also be expected to apply for and gain confirmation of DPhil status within nine terms of admission (within 18 terms if studying part-time), to show that your work continues to be on track.

Both milestones normally involve an interview with two assessors (other than your supervisor) and therefore provide important experience for the final oral examination.

You will be expected to submit a substantial thesis after four years from the date of admission if studying full-time (eight years if part-time). To be successfully awarded a DPhil you will need to defend your thesis orally (viva voce) in front of two appointed examiners.

Graduate destinations

There are a number of careers open to Fusion Power graduates and, more generally, Oxford materials graduates are highly regarded by a wide range of employers, including universities, national laboratories in the UK and abroad, high-tech start-up companies, engineering consultancies, industry (including aerospace, electronics, automotive, steel manufacture, medical and household products sectors), world-famous technology companies, schools and colleges, and the financial and business sectors.

Colleges