![]() ![]() The first stage of this has been developing a masterplan for the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (Step) fusion reactor, a design unique to the UK’s fusion research. ![]() Last year, the UK government announced their plans for a fully working fusion reactor by 2040. However, things could be about to change. “The biggest challenge isn’t about the science, but the fact that scientists have to now deliver something in a practical sense,” says Andrew Storer, chief executive of the UK's Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre. Fusion is an engineering challenge, rather than a scientific one. We understand how fusion operates in ideal conditions. The promise is eternal, but fusion always seems that same distance away. This claim, and many others since, have repeatedly failed to be achieved. ![]() As far back as 1955, the physicist Homi J Bhabha claimed we would have fusion power within two decades. For this, it would need to generate more power than is needed to keep the fusion reaction going.įor decades, we have been promised that commercial fusion power plants will exist within 30 years. The challenge is turning these experimental reactors into an ongoing process that is commercially viable. Test reactors, such as the Joint European Torus (Jet) at Culham in England, have proved fusion is possible, albeit for short periods of time. Fusion therefore offers the tantalising potential for near-limitless, climate-friendly energy production that doesn’t come with a shadow of radioactive waste. Neutron bombardment causes a fusion plant to become slightly radioactive, however these radioactive products are short-lived. This means there is far less harmful waste created by fusion. Unlike nuclear fission, which breaks heavy atoms apart, nuclear fusion compresses light atoms together. The countries building miniature nuclear reactors. ![]()
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