UK to launch commercial fusion reactor. But it won’t happen soon
The UK government aims to commission the country’s first commercial fusion reactor in 2040. This was reported by the BBC.
“The power plant [with a fusion reactor] will be the first of its kind and will be completed by 2040 with the ability to connect directly to the grid,” said British Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Jacob Rees-Mogg. According to him, this will prove to the world “the commercial viability of energy based on thermonuclear fusion.”
According to the BBC, the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) has secured more than £220 million from the UK government for the project. The reactor will be located in West Burton, Nottinghamshire, and will replace a coal-fired power plant operated by the French concern EDF, which is scheduled to close by the end of 2022.
Unlike conventional nuclear fusion, during a thermonuclear reaction, not fission occurs, but the fusion of atoms. Similar processes are observed in nature inside stars, for example, the Sun. According to UKAEA experts, cited by the broadcaster, this technology has the potential to become a source of “huge amounts of green” energy, the production of which requires a very small amount of raw materials.
Fusion, which scientists and business representatives call one of the “key factors for energy stability” of the future, is being developed in several leading countries of the world. The most notable of these was the ITER project, implemented jointly by China, the European Union, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States. The reactor being built by the international community in Provence (France) is based on the tokamak facility developed by domestic scientists, which is considered the most promising device for controlled thermonuclear fusion.