>The latest UK investment will help fund the construction of one of the world’s first prototype fusion power plants, as well as create up to 10,000 jobs over the next five years.
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>The prototype nuclear fusion power plant project, called STEP, will be built on the site of a decommissioned coal-fired power station in Nottinghamshire and is expected to be operational by the early 2040s.
>
>.. As part of the UK fusion strategy, the government also announced the country’s first AI supercomputer dedicated to fusion energy.
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>The £45 million machine, named Sunrise, is targeted for operation in June this year and is expected to be the world’s most powerful AI supercomputer dedicated to fusion energy.
>
>”UKAEA us taking lessons from the Apollo programme: we learn fastest when we can test, iterate, and improve safely in the virtual world before we commit to our real-world mission,” he said.
TWOITC on
UK built the first fission nuclear power plant and did nothing to take advantage of that investment, same here probably.
[deleted] on
[deleted]
Codzy on
Now this is some good news. As long as future governments don’t rip it up, some real forward thinking for a change.
Cyber_Connor on
Actual title “UK to invest £2.3bn into investors and snake oil salesmen that MPs went to school with to provide no value to anything that will help”
Cyber_Connor on
Is the UK even competent enough to complete such a big project?
LordLucian on
Hooray for good news and nuclear fusion but god damn if it isn’t wasted on AI
RecentTwo544 on
I really really really hope we get fusion power in my lifetime.
I know the old joke is “fusion power is always several years away and has been for decades” but that’s an injustice to the scientists working on it who have made *enormous* progress into making it work. We’ve gone from decades of a net negative in energy production to sustaining net positive reactions for over 20 minutes (bloody French hold the record currently, come on lads, let’s take that record!)
But there are still utterly insurmountable challenges to overcome when it comes to fusion on a commercial basis. I’m no expert, but I’ve seen people who are saying that some of these challenges could be overcome with enough time and money, but some they can’t even come up with a theoretical solution.
ucardiologist on
Bye bye Drumpf and your petrol oligarchs gangsters
Still waiting for that real good news when we decouple our energy prices from the gas prices.
Trabers on
Better than before… but for comparison the government is sinking £21.7 billion into Carbon capture and storage projects that are totally unproven.
I’d rather see £15 billion into nuclear fusion and £6 billion into wind farms and solar power. Maybe even a tidal barrage.
Astriania on
Fusion is only twenty years away, just like it has been for the last fifty years!
But, in fairness, that might actually be true this time. Prototype facilities like JET have actually made significant genuine progress, these facilities do briefly produce power these days, and we are probably only one or two key breakthroughs and a bunch of boring material science and engineering away from cracking it. (Although then you have the question of cost compared to competitors … but at least it becomes a viable option.)
This is absolutely worth throwing some R+D money at. Even if the prototype fails, it will be spent on skilling up a bunch of UK scientists and engineers in high value technological construction skills which will give us an advantage in other areas anyway.
Redditisfakeleft on
>Nuclear fusion has been described as the “holy grail” of clean energy, as it requires no fossil fuels and leaves behind no hazardous waste.
No hazardous waste? The neutron flux from the burning plasma turns the thing into a breeder reactor!
12 Comments
>The latest UK investment will help fund the construction of one of the world’s first prototype fusion power plants, as well as create up to 10,000 jobs over the next five years.
>
>The prototype nuclear fusion power plant project, called STEP, will be built on the site of a decommissioned coal-fired power station in Nottinghamshire and is expected to be operational by the early 2040s.
>
>.. As part of the UK fusion strategy, the government also announced the country’s first AI supercomputer dedicated to fusion energy.
>
>The £45 million machine, named Sunrise, is targeted for operation in June this year and is expected to be the world’s most powerful AI supercomputer dedicated to fusion energy.
>
>”UKAEA us taking lessons from the Apollo programme: we learn fastest when we can test, iterate, and improve safely in the virtual world before we commit to our real-world mission,” he said.
UK built the first fission nuclear power plant and did nothing to take advantage of that investment, same here probably.
[deleted]
Now this is some good news. As long as future governments don’t rip it up, some real forward thinking for a change.
Actual title “UK to invest £2.3bn into investors and snake oil salesmen that MPs went to school with to provide no value to anything that will help”
Is the UK even competent enough to complete such a big project?
Hooray for good news and nuclear fusion but god damn if it isn’t wasted on AI
I really really really hope we get fusion power in my lifetime.
I know the old joke is “fusion power is always several years away and has been for decades” but that’s an injustice to the scientists working on it who have made *enormous* progress into making it work. We’ve gone from decades of a net negative in energy production to sustaining net positive reactions for over 20 minutes (bloody French hold the record currently, come on lads, let’s take that record!)
But there are still utterly insurmountable challenges to overcome when it comes to fusion on a commercial basis. I’m no expert, but I’ve seen people who are saying that some of these challenges could be overcome with enough time and money, but some they can’t even come up with a theoretical solution.
Bye bye Drumpf and your petrol oligarchs gangsters
Still waiting for that real good news when we decouple our energy prices from the gas prices.
Better than before… but for comparison the government is sinking £21.7 billion into Carbon capture and storage projects that are totally unproven.
I’d rather see £15 billion into nuclear fusion and £6 billion into wind farms and solar power. Maybe even a tidal barrage.
Fusion is only twenty years away, just like it has been for the last fifty years!
But, in fairness, that might actually be true this time. Prototype facilities like JET have actually made significant genuine progress, these facilities do briefly produce power these days, and we are probably only one or two key breakthroughs and a bunch of boring material science and engineering away from cracking it. (Although then you have the question of cost compared to competitors … but at least it becomes a viable option.)
This is absolutely worth throwing some R+D money at. Even if the prototype fails, it will be spent on skilling up a bunch of UK scientists and engineers in high value technological construction skills which will give us an advantage in other areas anyway.
>Nuclear fusion has been described as the “holy grail” of clean energy, as it requires no fossil fuels and leaves behind no hazardous waste.
No hazardous waste? The neutron flux from the burning plasma turns the thing into a breeder reactor!