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Government commits to nuclear fusion design

29th Oct 2019 | Energy
Government commits to nuclear fusion design

The government has announced that it is committing to £220 million of support for the ‘conceptual design of a fusion power station’ with a reactor design known as a Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production or STEP.

The announcement was made by Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Andrea Leadsom, during a recent visit to UK Atomic Energy Authority’s (UKAEA) Science Centre headquarters in Culham, Oxfordshire.

Carbon-free power

The STEP design project is for a commercially viable nuclear fusion power plant, generating energy from fusion and converting it into electricity. The technology has the potential to produce large amounts of carbon-free electricity, with a ‘realistic prospect’ of constructing a plant by 2040.

Andrea Leadsom, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, said: “This is a bold and ambitious investment in the energy technology of the future. Nuclear fusion has the potential to be an unlimited clean, safe and carbon-free energy source and we want the first commercially viable machine to be in the U.K.

“This long-term investment will build on the UK’s scientific leadership, driving advancements in materials science, plasma physics and robotics to support new hi-tech jobs and exports.”

Energy expert view

“The goal of unlimited, clean, safe and carbon-free energy is a panacea worth putting significant effort into given the climate change issue we are facing, and we have been doing so for some considerable time.

"A workable potentially commercial design for a nuclear fusion based reactor producing electricity would certainly be a major step forward for the technology.” Alastair Fells MEI, Incorporated Eng, PG Dip Fuel Tech, BSc Hons

Read more here or please contact Andrew Davison on 0191 211 7950 for help with your energy related legal needs.

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