Overview
- Funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the 1.4MW system is the first major asset in the planned AI Growth Zone at UKAEA’s Culham campus.
- The government bills Sunrise as the world’s most powerful AI supercomputer dedicated to fusion energy, with operation targeted for June.
- Performance is quoted at up to about 6.76 exaFLOPS for AI‑accelerated modelling, a workload metric distinct from traditional supercomputer rankings.
- The system uses AMD EPYC CPUs and Instinct GPUs on Dell PowerEdge infrastructure with WEKA storage, with partners including Intel, the University of Cambridge, DSIT and UKAEA.
- Planned use cases include modelling plasma turbulence, developing reactor materials and advancing tritium breeding, supporting programmes such as LIBRTI and the STEP prototype plant.