M5tec awarded 4-year Fusion Framework

Image courtesy of EUROfusion

M5tec has been awarded a four-year Specialist Mechanical Design Services framework with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).

The UKAEA carries out fusion energy research on behalf of the UK Government at Culham Science Centre near Oxford. UKAEA oversees Britain’s fusion programme, headed by the MAST Upgrade (Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak) experiment. It also hosts the world’s largest fusion research facility, JET (Joint European Torus), which it operates for European scientists under a contract with the European Commission.

The framework will allow UKAEA to call upon M5tec’s Mechanical engineering and design team to assist them in delivering their goal of achieving commercially viable fusion energy.

Craig Chalder, Managing Director at M5tec said: “Securing a framework of this nature is a huge step in M5tec’s mission of ‘becoming the UK’s number one provider of engineering solutions to high assurance industries’. A lot of effort was exerted on this tender and to secure a place on the framework is an enormous achievement for an SME like M5tec.

Our team of engineers have experience in sectors such as Nuclear, Oil & Gas, Subsea and Renewables which have allowed them to identify best practices from each industry and apply them to Nuclear Fusion. We are looking forward to working with UKAEA and the other framework holders”.

Paula Barham, UKAEA’s Head of Procurement, said: “This framework will be a key means for UKAEA to access the highly-skilled supply chain offered by the winners. All successful tenderers are to be congratulated for winning a place on a hotly contested framework. We look forward to working with M5tec, as well as with all the other framework winners, as we seek to solve the huge technical challenges presented by the development of sustainable fusion energy.”

Fusion research at Culham is funded by the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC – www.epsrc.ac.uk) and by the European Union under the EURATOM treaty.

More information: www.gov.uk/ukaea, www.m5tec.com.
Twitter: @UKAEAofficial, @M5tec_ltd