Profile
Leah Morgan
Project Engineer working in Fusion Energy
My CV
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Education:
University of Sheffield, Landau Forte College
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Qualifications:
MPhys (Physics), A-Levels (Physics, Maths, Further Maths)
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Current Job:
Diagnostic Project Engineer
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About Me:
Hi! I’m a project engineer working in fusion energy (she/her)
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Hi, my name’s Leah and I’m a project engineer. I studied physics at the University of Sheffield and now I live in Oxfordshire. I love aerial arts (like you see at the circus) and watch A LOT of YouTube. I’m a vegetarian and my fave food/drink is bubble tea 😀
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At UKAEA in Oxfordshire, we have two tokamaks (JET and MAST-U). These are fusion reactors – not to be confused with fission reactors which are already used in nuclear power stations. In a fusion reactor, hydrogen isotopes are heated to around 150 million degrees (10 times hotter than the centre of the Sun!). When hydrogen atoms get this hot, they begin to combine to form helium – this is called FUSION. When atoms fuse lots of fusion energy is released.
JET and MAST-U are two huge experiments that are helping us find the best way to build a fusion reactor. We are working towards building a fusion power station which would produce safe, sustainable, green energy!
My job is to learn all about the experimental equipment (also called diagnostics) running on our machines so I can fix them, upgrade them, and even build my own! I spend my time managing projects, talking to scientists, and designing equipment.
I am currently RO (Responsible Officer) for about 6 different projects – that means it is my responsibility to fill out paperwork, talk to stakeholders (that’s anyone involved with the project), and to make sure the job gets done. I manage my projects from start to finish!
I have included a photo of a mini plasma ball that some previous employees built. The weird pink glow looks a lot like the inside of one of our tokamaks!
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My Typical Day:
I don’t have a typical day. I could be leading meetings, designing equipment, taking part in outreach, training, researching, or something else!
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Usually I begin by checking for updates from everyone I’m working with, these could be from scientists, engineers, analysts, designers, or technicians. There are usually lots of updates as each of my projects is in a different design stage.
From there my day can go anywhere! Some days I help technicians do some work on JET, other days I have lots of design meetings with important people, and sometimes I take part in outreach. I like to lead tour groups for school visits and open evenings or go out with the Sun Dome (an inflatable planetarium we take into primary schools to talk about fusion).
I’ve added some selfies so you can see just how different my days can be! The first is me standing on top of JET (JET is 3 storeys high and you can see the orange 150 tonne crane hovering above my head!), the second is my first installation as RO (we installed some monitors on two 1100 tonne moving concrete radiation shields), and the third is my mask fitting to make sure my head isn’t too small (it isn’t)!
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I would use the prize money to buy equipment for my next YouTube video. I need to buy stuff to make a Ruben’s Tube (google it!).
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The most exciting thing that's happened this year in my research area:
The government has recently invested £220million in fusion in the UK!
We’re going to use this money to create a concept design for the first fusion power plant (STEP). It’s the largest amount of money the UK government has invested in fusion since the Joint European Torus (JET) was built in the eighties. Additionally, the government has invested an extra £180million so we can expand/update our site and hire more people. This is a really exciting time to be working at UKAEA!
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My latest work:
I’m a physics graduate working as an engineer in fusion energy!
My main projects include designing and installing radiation shielding for some of the equipment close to our fusion reactor. We have a lot of high-energy experiments coming up and we know the radiation is going to destroy all the electronics, fibre optic cables, and rubber seals!
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My favourite misconception about my area of science:
When people think of engineers, they tend to think of people wearing boiler suits and hard hats. Actually, I don’t wear my hard hat very often! Engineering is a fun mix of designing, building, and installing. Most of the time I’m wearing jeans and heels!
There’s also a big misconception that we haven’t ‘done’ fusion yet – we run fusion experiments every day!