The UK Will Invest Billions to Build a Nuclear Fusion Industry (thetimes.com)
- Reference: 0180998978
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/03/16/0049245/the-uk-will-invest-billions-to-build-a-nuclear-fusion-industry
- Source link: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/science/article/uk-investing-25bn-to-chase-holy-grail-of-nuclear-fusion-dwjjp6hj8
> Despite the potentially transformative impact of fusion, which in theory could provide limitless clean energy and create a £12 trillion global market, no country has managed to use this fledgling technology to generate useable electricity... [T]he UK is backing a spherical tokamak design... investing an initial £1.3 billion into a prototype fusion power plant called Step (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) on the site of a decommissioned coal-fired power station at West Burton in Nottinghamshire. Paul Methven, chief executive of the government-owned UK Industrial Fusion Solutions, which is delivering the Step project, said the aim is to get the reactor operating early in the 2040s. "It's quite an aggressive programme," he said. "We need to show that we can achieve genuine 'wall socket' energy — which has not been done before."
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> On Monday, [science minister] Vallance will also announce £180 million for a facility in Culham, Oxfordshire, to manufacture tritium fuel and £50 million for training 2,000 scientists and engineers in fusion-related disciplines. The government is also buying a £45 million fusion-dedicated AI supercomputer called Sunrise to model plasma physics. Scientists at the UK Atomic Energy Authority last year developed an AI model that can rapidly simulate how the ultra-hot fuel in a fusion power plant will behave, cutting calculations that previously took days down to seconds...
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> Vallance will also announce new support and collaboration for the many fusion, robotics, engineering and AI start-ups working in Britain, to develop a strong supply chain for a new fusion sector. One of those companies, Tokamak Energy, which spun out from the UK Atomic Energy Authority in 2009, has already built a smaller reactor that has informed the Step design. In March 2022, it became the first private organisation in the world to surpass 100 million degrees Celsius in its reactor.
[1] https://www.thetimes.com/uk/science/article/uk-investing-25bn-to-chase-holy-grail-of-nuclear-fusion-dwjjp6hj8
Re: (Score:2)
Part of the push for fusion is to keep the AI bubble afloat.
So what? (Score:2)
We're building flying cars.
Re: (Score:1)
> We're building flying cars.
Two financial failures in one, whadda bahgin!
I hope at least one gets lucky, but I won't put stock in them myself.
Re: (Score:2)
Moller Fusion wants to get in on this hot action.
Re: (Score:2)
No, you're not. Some are building oversized quadcopters, but with more propellers that can do 15 to 20 minutes in the air.
That's about it.
Re: (Score:3)
> If only God had put fusion reactor up in the sky available for use on average 12 hours a day any place on Earth.
Instead of squirrelling away all that past sunlight underground?
Would be way too expensive. (Score:3)
From my background working in the Fusion Division of the US Department of Energy I'm skeptical. First I doubt it can be made to work. Second the engineering challenges are such that fusion power, like fission power, will never be economically competitive to gas and renewables.
Re: Would be way too expensive. (Score:2)
I think I agree. IMH & highly uneducated opinion the energy input required to initiate & sustain a stable fusion reaction far out-weighs the energy that could be extracted. Nature has this "gravity" thing that allows it to whip up little fusion pussycats. We don't have that.
ITER (Score:2)
Why don't they invest more in ITER instead? They should get ITER up faster. If they can show it works, the money will flow. I feel like they are spreading resources too thin and then nothing will work and fusion will be set back yet again decades.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed! Share the costs and risks. It's not like UK is flush with cash of late.
I'd rather see work on a stellerator, though. They seem more promising and mechanically simpler in the long run. Computer control will improve over time.
Re: (Score:2)
ITER is running well behind private sector competition. Allegedly.
Re: (Score:2)
What "private sector competition"? There are two or three projects worldwide that have produced something in the field and all are government-sponsored.
The "startup" cottage industry around them are mostly subcontractors that feed on the crumbs of the large projects.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know the whole field, but this one is local-ish to me: [1]https://www.openstar.tech/ [openstar.tech]
Has gained some government funding recently, but I wouldn't call it government-sponsored.
I don't know whether it's 'ahead' of IETR, but it is a different technology path from the others. Which path will eventually win the race to working at useful energy surplus levels, it's too soon to say. There may even be several successful designs, like there are with fision reactors.
[1] https://www.openstar.tech/
Lets build fusion reactors on the Moon (Score:1)
No need to explore Antarctic for oil.
Questions about the investment (Score:2)
Have a casual interest in modeling plasma (it's a long story why). Because of this interest, have specific questions about the investment (that weren't answered in the article):
* Why (only) a tokamak design? There are two primary types of fusion reactors, magnetic and inertial confinement. There are also hybrid approaches, such as what Helion Energy is using, a magneto-inertial fusion. So, my question, why choose only this approach? If you're going to make a large investment, why not invest in the many type
Flying car moonshot (Score:2)
If it hasn't happened yet, it will take orders-of-magnitude more money and talent to accomplish. This is just throwing money away to appease some jobs program political faction. While it would be nice for it to happen, this isn't serious about actually accomplishing it.
Fusion in five years (Score:2)
for £2.5 billion. What a rip-off.
for £2.5 billion. What a rip-off. (Score:1)
Thats only 3 days of War...
Re: (Score:2)
Over in one hour, with fission. Dammit, off-topic!
Re: (Score:2)
The last two at least produce something. But what is war good for? Absolutely nothing!