Shortly after the New Year's festivities had finished, twenty-five PhD students braved the ice and snow to come to Durham University to make some critical current measurements on HTS superconductors for ~ 3 days in January 2025.
These first-year students are part of the EPSRC funded CDT in Fusion Power. Most of their time was spent in the laboratories making measurements and learning about HTS superconductors, cryogenics, nanovolt measurements in high fields and data acquisition and analysis. The course also included a handful of excellent lectures that provided the context for the practical work on: Health and Safety; Superconductivity for fusion; Cryogenics; Computational magnet design; and HTS cables and fusion magnets. The visiting lecturers were Alex Blair (UKAEA), Charles Monroe (Monroe Brothers) and Stuart Wimbush (UK Industrial Fusion Solutions Ltd). The practical course was rounded off by a short tour of Durham Cathedral. In the context of the UK Government's commitment to achieve net zero, Durham's Cathedral and Castle reminded us of the UK's long history of world-class science and engineering, and helped warm up the evening's discussions over dinner about moving from fossil to fusion technology, and building the STEP fusion tokamak (https://www.edfenergy.com/media-centre/news-releases/bright-future-west-burton-site-looks-move-fossil-fuel-fusion ). Prof. Hampshire, March 2025.
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