You are invited to our 9th Suppliers Event, which take place on Thursday 8th December at our Culham site.
This event will present a procurement overview across our major programmes. In addition, there will be a range of exhibition booths hosted by UKAEA, opportunities for networking, lunch and refreshments at our world-class OAS apprenticeship facility.
In-person tickets can be booked until 30th of November. Nonetheless, they are limited to the auditorium’s maximum capacity. Secure yours now!
If you can’t make it in person, you can grab a Virtual ticket and watch the main presentations online. Virtual tickets can be booked until 7th of December.
If you have any questions about the event or our procurement opportunities, please email supplychain@ukaea.uk.
STEPping into Nottinghamshire
In October, the UK Government confirmed the West Burton power station site in North Nottinghamshire as the home for STEP, the UKAEA’s programme to build a prototype fusion energy plant.
STEP will demonstrate that it’s possible to generate net electricity to the grid as well as effective maintenance of the plant and fuel self-sufficiency. The programme will create thousands of highly skilled jobs during construction and operations, and attract other high-tech industries to the region, furthering the development of science and technology capabilities nationally.
“Selecting the location of the STEP prototype plant is a huge, visible moment in the challenging and long-term endeavour of bringing fusion energy to the grid. West Burton is a natural fit for the STEP programme with a rich industrial heritage now being developed and repurposed for a low carbon future. It really is ‘from fossil fuels to fusion"
The West Burton site, which is home to a coal-fired power station owned by EDF, was selected following a rigorous assessment process over almost two years. Fifteen locations were long-listed following an open call for sites in December 2020 and this was reduced to five after assessments in October 2021. The second round of assessments concluded in the spring with UKAEA making its final recommendations to the Secretary of State in May 2022.
STEP will pave the way to the commercialisation of fusion and the potential development of a fleet of future plants around the world.
The other sites shortlisted to host STEP were Ardeer, North Ayrshire; Moorside, Cumbria; Goole, East Yorkshire; and Severn Edge, Gloucestershire.
If you have any questions about the programme, please Get in Touch.
Whole Plant Partners… the next steps
At the beginning of October STEP kicked off its pre-market engagement activities with a webinar outlining the huge opportunities for organisations to become a Whole Plant Partner. STEP will need three partners – Construction, Engineering and Fusion (which will be provided by UKAEA). While the webinar was well attended it is the first of a series of opportunities for organisations to find out more. In fact, a second webinar is being planned for the 12 December to provide an update on the feedback we’ve received to date, and we are already looking ahead to 2023 when there will be more opportunities including an in-person supply chain event – more details will be made available on these soon.
And finally, an important announcement – a Request for Information (RFI), was released on the 10 November 2022 seeking views to build into our procurement process – we look forward to receiving your feedback and views. You can view that HERE.
Any questions around this, please contact procurement@step.ukaea.uk.