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New Energy World
New Energy World embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low carbon technologies.
Why UK government hydrogen fuel research is the 21st century’s hottest energy ticket
20/11/2024
8 min read
Feature
Outside of the EU, the UK is forging its own path towards commercial production of electricity from nuclear fusion. The 2022 UK fusion strategy has sketched out a vision of building a prototype fusion reactor using a domestic design, along with fuel cycle facilities, proposals which attracted ‘significant support’ in the October 2024 budget. A panel of distinguished scientists and engineers from state R&D body the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) presented the topic to Energy Institute Fellows in September 2024. New Energy World Senior Editor Will Dalrymple reports.
Government could do worse than by following the advice of Stephen Hawking, contended Ian Chapman, UKAEA CEO at the Energy Institute Fellows event. ‘When asked for a world-changing idea, Hawking said, “I’d like to see the development of fusion”.’ It is low-carbon; inherently safe – you can’t have a chain reaction; half of its fuel is readily available; it has little land use requirements and requires few natural resources; nor does it produce long-lasting radioactive waste.
But, he continued, ‘fusion is hard’. To create it on Earth, temperatures have to reach 100mn °C, generating the most intense source of neutrons that fly out everywhere and damage whatever is used to make the reactor. The reactor encounters incredible heat gradients, from the plasma, which can’t touch the wall-to-wall temperatures of 2,000°C, to nearby magnets cryogenically cooled to 4°C above absolute zero. This unforgiving environment is not safe for people, so robots must be used for maintenance and ongoing repairs. And the reactor needs enough fuel to keep going.
This process was explored at the European fusion research facility JET in Culham, Oxfordshire, which broke records in terms of the energy it produced last year, and then shut down after 21 years of operation. Chapman called it the largest operating fusion facility in the world; a big industrial plant, with a high quantity of tritium, the same mix of metals as a power plant and the largest-scale robotic maintenance.