Turbulence Modeller

• Salary: £48,290 (inclusive of Specialist Allowance) + excellent benefits including outstanding pension
• Division:
  Plasma Science and Fusion Operations
• Department:
  Plasma Physics

By 2050, the planet could be using twice as much electricity compared to today. Are you interested in contributing and helping to shape the future of the world’s energy? If so, read on.

Fusion, the process that powers the Sun and Stars, is one of the most promising options for generating cleaner, carbon-free energy that our world badly needs.

UKAEA leads the way in realizing fusion energy, partnering with industry and research for groundbreaking advancements. Our goal is to bring fusion electricity to the grid, supported by tomorrow's power stations. In pursuit of our mission, UKAEA embraces core values:
Innovative, Committed, Trusted, and Collaborative.

• Outstanding defined benefit pension scheme, details of which can be found at the end of this advert.
• Corporate bonus scheme up to 7% and relocation allowance (if eligible).
• Flexible working options, including family friendly policies and the right to request flexible working from the start of your employment.
• Employee Assistance Programme and trained Mental Health First Aiders.
• Generous annual leave allowance starting with 25 days, plus 3 days Christmas closure and 2.5 privilege days, in addition to UK bank holidays.
• A vibrant culture committed to equality and being fully inclusive.

The salary for this role is £48,290 (inclusive of a Specialist Allowance).

Onsite working is expected for 3 days a week; however, we actively support requests for flexible working.

This role can be based at any of the following sites:
Culham, Oxfordshire.

This role requires employees to complete an online Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), including Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions and possibly a search of open source data.

As Turbulence Modeller, you will play a pivotal role in developing and applying advanced computational tools to model turbulence and transport in high‑beta burning plasmas. You will focus on creating and refining reduced (quasi‑linear) models to capture key physics of turbulent transport efficiently, providing essential insights for optimising next‑generation fusion pilot plants (FPP).

This work is integral to UKAEA’s ambitious STEP programme to design a compact fusion reactor foreseen to operate in a non‑inductive high‑beta plasma regime. In addition, UKAEA operates MAST‑U, one of the world’s leading spherical tokamaks, highly suitable for exploring the physics basis for STEP. The plasma regimes envisaged for FPPs like STEP push beyond the range of validity of reduced models of turbulent transport.

These models therefore require further development. In this endeavour, UKAEA has strong collaborations with UK universities as well as other international programmes in Europe and worldwide.

• Exploit codes that model turbulence in high‑beta burning plasmas, including fast alpha fusion products, electromagnetic fluctuations, and flows.
• Build and refine reduced models to describe the turbulent transport obtained from higher‑fidelity models.
• Propose and participate in relevant experiments on MAST‑U or other devices.
• Exploit and/or develop advanced computational tools (e.g., flux‑driven transport calculations using gyrokinetic simulations and/or reduced models), and use these simulations to improve reduced transport models, predict turbulence and transport in conceptual high‑beta burning plasmas, predict performance, and explore routes to optimise reactor designs.
• Report results regularly via reports and presentations, both internally and to collaborators.
• Disseminate outputs at conferences and in journals where appropriate.
• Collaborate with turbulence modellers, developers, and experimentalists based at UKAEA and in external collaborating organisations.

• PhD (or equivalent experience) in a relevant field.
• Experience in numerical modelling and/or validation of plasma turbulence models.
• PhD‑level knowledge of plasma turbulence transport.
• Interest in model validation by testing models against…