UK says fusion now needs an industry, backed by £2.5 billion over five years
Victoria Shinder1 min readThe UK is trying to turn its record in fusion research into an industrial base, World Nuclear News reports from the Fusion Industry Association's UK Fusion Forum on 15 September. David Capper, who became Director of New Nuclear and Fusion Energy at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero in June, said the sector was moving quickly from research towards an industrial and commercial proposition. "The challenge before us is no longer simply proving the science, it is building the industry," he said.
Capper said the government is backing fusion research and commercialisation with more than £2.5 billion over five years, covering research and technology programmes, specialist facilities and the development of STEP, the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production prototype plant at West Burton in Nottinghamshire. He cited more than 60 years of research, public investment, what he called a proportionate regulatory framework, and a growing ecosystem of developers, national laboratories, engineering companies, suppliers, universities and investors.
According to Capper, STEP is meant to do more than demonstrate the technology: it should build the industrial capability, supply chains and skills that commercial fusion plants would later need. The UK Atomic Energy Authority's chief executive, Tim Bestwick, made a similar case at the forum.
What it means
The shift in language is the news: from science milestones to supply chains and skills. Fusion's commercial timeline is still measured in decades, so what the UK can build now is a manufacturing and engineering base that is useful whichever design succeeds. Whether £2.5 billion over five years is enough for that is the question the forum did not answer.