The UK government has sent out a call to communities to suggest places for them to build the nation's first-ever nuclear fusion plant in a bid to further reduce the country's reliance on fossil fuels.
An artists' rendition of the STEP fusion plant. Credit: UKAEA
The STEP project - short for Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production - will commence with £222 million (€246 million) in government funding to aid in its design followed by a multibillion-pound investment for construction.
The government claims the project will “pave the way to a limitless supply of low-carbon clean energy” by harnessing nuclear fusion.
The project should be completed by 2040 and add well over 100MW to the British power grid. It is set to be the first of several plants which will provide a substantial portion of the country's electricity needs in the latter half of the century.
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Last year, Boris Johnson committed an extra £200 million (€221.6 million) to the project and the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) - the government branch in charge of STEP - hopes construction will commence by 2030.
Ian Chapman, UKAEA's head, says the project may cost in excess of £2 billion (€2.22 billion) to build.
He admits he frequently faces questions about how effective it will be, as no fusion plant has ever produced more energy than it consumed.
However, a French project, due to go online in 2025, could change this.
He said: "STEP is about moving from research and development to delivery. It will prove that fusion is not a far-off dream, but a dawning reality with the UK leading the commercial development of fusion power and positioning itself as a pioneer in sustainable fusion energy.
"To achieve this ambitious goal will require all the ingenuity and application of the UK’s science and engineering industry and we look forward to working with industrial partners in the years ahead, not just to invest, but also to support the technical evolution of the programme. We are confident that working together with partners in the UK and around the world will enable the UK to bring a revolutionary technology to market."
The "tokamak" design originated in the Soviet Union in the 1950s and has a round reaction vessel that holds the fuel - superheated deuterium and tritium - held in place by powerful magnets while raising its temperature above 100 million°C.
Business and Energy Secretary Alok Sharma said: "We want the UK to be a trailblazer in developing fusion energy by capitalising on its incredible potential as a limitless clean energy source that could last for generations to come.
"Communities across the country have an incredible opportunity to secure their place in the history books as the home of STEP, helping the UK to be the first country in the world to commercialise fusion and creating thousands of highly skilled jobs to drive our green industrial revolution."
Communities have until the end of March to choose the plant's location.
UKAEA's current headquarters at Culham, Oxfordshire, is currently full.
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The upkeep for the plant will be relatively low, however, UKAEA admits that the initial building costs are not.
The firm said the costs for its construction could come from a mix of government and public sector funding.
There have also been concerns that the output of the plant may not be sufficient, owing to the 78,000 MW of energy being produced at power stations, and experts predict power consumption will increase by as much as 50% by 2040 due to the switch towards electric vehicles and heating.
Constructing a plant that could keep up with the increasing demand would come at a significant cost and would require years of planning and research on UKAEA's part.
However, the government announced its intention to work with the growing number of nuclear fusion firms in the private sector. As it stands, they are set to work with between 40 to 50 companies on the project.
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