Leading the way in nuclear innovations

UNSW was the first university in Australia to offer a nuclear engineering program in 1954.

Nearly 75 years later, UNSW remains at the forefront of innovations in nuclear engineering within Australia and has the largest nuclear engineering program in the country.

The University is now the home of the UNSW Nuclear Innovation Centre, opens in a new window (UNIC) which advances the nation’s nuclear science industry via the establishment a suite of research scholarships in nuclear engineering.

Underpinned by a $7.5 million donation from the Sir William Tyree Foundation, the centre will fund research programs, scholarships for Masters and PhDs in nuclear engineering, and will support junior academic positions.

The UNIC is a cross-disciplinary, cross-industry hub that will initially bring together academics from UNSW and research partners, including the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), the University of Sydney and the University of Wollongong. The centre’s goal is to develop a skilled workforce and future leaders to ensure Australia builds a competitive and prosperous nuclear technology industry. This includes training experts for a range of careers, including engineering, science, law and policy.

Director of the UNIC, Associate Professor Edward Obbard, opens in a new window, said his team was intent on advancing Australia's nuclear technology for global impact.

“We are growing a nuclear workforce in Australia grounded in academic excellence, diversity and social inclusion, which in turn are foundations for nuclear safety in all Australia’s nuclear activities. We are connecting our research to industry applications and embedding the results of our research in our education programs, so that they continually evolve,” he said.

Elsewhere in nuclear innovation at UNSW, a team of students are working on designing, building and then operating a tokamak nuclear fusion device, opens in a new window.

The program, known as AtomCraft, is part of the University’s Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP), opens in a new window scheme which is designed to engage undergraduate and postgraduate students in ambitious, long-term, multidisciplinary challenges led by UNSW academics.

The fusion construction project is headed up by nuclear engineering expert Dr Patrick Burr, opens in a new window and aims to have a working device operating by 2025 or 2026.

Fusion is the opposite reaction of nuclear fission, which powers conventional nuclear power plants.

Instead of breaking up heavy elements like uranium, it fuses together light elements that are abundant on our planet, like hydrogen, or boron. The process does not rely on a chain reaction, and the by-product is helium, an inert gas and also a valuable resource.

Tokamak technology

UNSW’s first fusion-capable machine will be 'tokamak', a doughnut-shaped vacuum chamber with powerful magnets to control and heat streams of plasma to extreme temperatures, at which point nuclear fusion is possible.

The program is being supported by the UNSW Digital Grid Future Institute, opens in a new window and industry partners Tokamak Energy and HB-11 Energy and Dr Burr, from the UNSW School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, opens in a new window, said: “We want to excite the next generation of innovators and make them realise how they can make a big change in the world.

“The students involved in this project will have to develop solutions to big engineering challenges, work closely with industry partners, and push the boundaries of what is possible with fusion energy.

"They will have to master skills that are also highly-sought after in other industries, like safety-critical infrastructure, transportation, outer space, and of course conventional nuclear technologies.”