The UK Programme of Laser Inertial Fusion Technology for Energy (UPLiFT) is an exciting project led by the CLF and funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).
UPLiFT will provide a focus in the UK for the development of technologies relevant to energy-generation via laser inertial fusion. In doing so, UPLiFT aims to grow the UK’s laser fusion research base and accelerate the development of UK knowledge, technology and expertise in this area.
Part of the UK’s Fusion Futures programme, UPLiFT will run over four years with a total budget of £10M. The CLF will act as the lead organisation, with research and development performed jointly with academia, industry, and other national laboratories in a programmatic manner.
Key areas
Building on the world leading DiPOLE laser architecture, UPLiFT will investigate new, novel schemes and concepts to meet the demanding challenges of a fusion relevant laser driver.
This will include the continued development of energy-efficient, high-energy, high-average-power commercially competitive lasers, maintaining the UK’s current international leadership in this technology.
Fusion target precision mass-manufacturing is an area with huge potential and many unanswered questions.
UPLiFT will develop and grow the well-established team within the CLF’s Target Fabrication Group to expand the UK’s expertise in ultra-precision high-value manufacturing to encompass fusion relevant target design, exploring the potential for mass manufacture .
UPLiFT will coordinate a wider team of specialists from across the academic community.
This team, from across the UK, at the CLF, University of Oxford, Imperial College London, University of Warwick and the University of York, will develop advanced high-gain implosion designs using benchmarked state-of-the-art simulation codes. These designs and codes will be used to help inform the laser and target development.
Chris Spindloe
Target Fabrication Group Leader
Chris’s current research interests are high rep rate target solutions and developing novel targets for studying matter under extreme conditions.
Emily Reynolds
Target Development Scientist
Emily is a chemistry graduate working as part of the UPLiFT program on the research and development of inertial confinement fusion targets, with focus on their manufacture by two-photon polymerisation printing.
Robbie Scott
UPLiFT Chief Scientist
Robbie’s work focuses on developing the science and technologies required to realise laser-driven inertial confinement fusion as a future clean energy source.