The UK Government has announced plans for a 1.4MW mission-focused supercomputer named ‘Sunrise’, a key first step in establishing the country’s first AI Growth Zone at the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s (UKAEA) Culham Campus in Oxfordshire.
As announced in the Fusion Strategy, Sunrise is targeted for operation in June this year and is primed to be the “world’s most powerful AI supercomputer dedicated to fusion energy”.
Funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), Sunrise will tackle key fusion energy challenges in areas such as plasma turbulence, materials development and tritium fuel breeding, while delivering spillover benefits to other clean energy technologies and the UK’s broader net zero ambitions.
Sunrise will also strengthen essential AI capabilities at Culham Campus and across the UK’s high-performance computing landscape, contributing to the Government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan and AI for Science Strategy.
Sunrise will see AMD, DESNZ, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), Dell Technologies, Intel, UKAEA, the University of Cambridge, and WEKA working together.
It will deliver up to 6.76 Exaflops of AI-accelerated modelling, enabling high-fidelity simulations and the creation of digital twins for complex systems.
Lord Vallance, Minister for Science, Innovation, Research and Nuclear, said: “We can be proud that Britain will lead the way on research, innovation and skills for a future of limitless fusion energy.
“By backing our fusion industry, we are not only securing our future energy independence, but from innovation and research to engineers, we are also providing the skilled clean energy jobs of the future for British people.”
Dr Rob Akers, UKAEA’s Director for Computing Programmes, said: “UKAEA is taking lessons from the Apollo programme: we learn fastest when we can test, iterate, and improve safely in the virtual world before we commit to our real-world mission.
“Sunrise will bring that capability to fusion by combining high-fidelity simulation with physics-informed AI to develop predictive digital twins that reduce the cost, risk and time of learning that would otherwise require expensive and time-consuming physical testing.”
Fusion research pushes the limits of science and computing, demanding massive simulation, complex modelling and advanced AI to accelerate progress.
With Sunrise, the UK will have a powerful new capability to simulate plasma behaviour and fusion conditions rapidly and accurately. This will help researchers advance the development of stable, efficient and economically viable fusion energy.
Sunrise brings together AMD EPYC processors and AMD Instinct GPU acceleration, purpose-built on the Dell PowerEdge platform, to deliver breakthrough AI and high-performance computing for the UK fusion community and supporting the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero as it moves fusion from research toward practical impact.
Simon Wilyman – GM UK/I & Northern Europe, Intel Corporation, said: “There are grand milestones in the evolution of our civilisation, and the commercialisation of fusion power is set to be one of them. Intel is delighted to partner with organisations such as UKAEA to support this ambitious endeavour.
“As part of the first AI Growth Zone, the Sunrise supercomputer strengthens the UK’s position as a global innovation hub.
“By combining advanced AI capabilities and high memory bandwidth with fusion research, Intel is creating the computational foundation necessary to unlock sustainable energy and improve lives worldwide.”
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