‘Holy grail’ of limitless clean energy could be here by 2040

On the site of a former coal power station, a stone’s throw from the River Trent in Nottinghamshire, work is about to begin on what is being touted as the “Holy Grail” of energy production.

As ministers battle with the volatile gas market exacerbating the cost of living crisis, plans for one of the world’s first thermonuclear fusion plants are being drawn up with the aim of it being hooked up to the grid in 15 years.

In the short to medium term, fusion, which offers the prospect of near-limitless supplies of clean energy without the harmful radioactive waste, is not expected to become the dominant energy source powering the UK grid.

Instead, it will help provide the “baseload”, which is a constant and reliable energy source when the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow.

But the Government sees it as a potentially crucial part of the mix in the future.

Unlike nuclear fission, which relies on splitting an atom to create energy, fusion is where nuclei, such as hydrogen isotopes, are forced together to create a heavier helium nucleus, which produces enormous amounts of energy.

For decades the science has been openly mocked as constantly being “just 50 years away”, but successive UK administrations have been pumping money into the sector.

Jet Mast-U Machine (Photo: United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority)

Nuclear fusion power ‘closer than you think’

The West Burton power station site, known as Step (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production), is due for completion in 2040 and, it is hoped, will demonstrate that the science behind what powers the sun and all stars in the universe could be replicated in a field just off the A156.

Hydrogen atoms are heated to extreme temperatures in the sun and other stars, forming a plasma which allows the hydrogen nuclei (protons) to collide at high speeds. The energy released from this intense process, known as fusion, manifests as heat and light, which is then radiated out from its source.

Just last month, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero set up the world’s first public-private investment fund specifically for fusion energy to attract private sector cash.

The prototype reactor at West Burton aims to replicate the UK’s feats at the dawn of the first nuclear age.

“We hope to be connected to the grid to demonstrate net positive electricity, aiming for the 2040s,” Celestine Cheong of the UK Atomic Energy Agency, told The i Paper, describing this as an “aggressive timeframe”.

“So when people ask how viable fusion is, it is viable. We just need to put our electrons on the grid,” she said.

“It’s more promising than people think. However, numerous challenges remain over the next few years.”

She compared it to when two nuclear establishments were set up in the 1950s in the Scottish Highlands to develop fission technology.

The sites in Dounreay on the north coast of Caithness were instrumental in proving the feasibility of nuclear energy production.

“We knew fission would work”, Cheong explained. “Dounreay was essentially a prototype plant, and then it connected to the grid to produce electricity. And it was a massive, massive win for the UK at the time.”

While the prospect of harnessing near-limitless, safe, clean energy seems like a no-brainer, it is uncertain that there will be immediate take-up.

Asked whether fusion was closer than people think, Cheong said: “Investors need to work out whether they want to invest in this technology or not, but otherwise, yes, it is closer than you think.”

Planning for construction is due to begin on West Burton in 2028. The Government announced in January that there are five bids to lead its construction, with the winning bidder due to be unveiled no later than early 2026.

The prototype plant would place the UK among the frontrunners in the race to show that fusion energy (the term nuclear fusion is deemed too confusing for the public) is not just viable, but scalable and able to be commercialised.

Jet Torus Hall 3 (Photo: United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority)

UK’s ‘Nasa moment’

Proponents of the energy programme, including MPs, want to ensure the UK remains at the forefront of what some market analysts believe could become a £30trn sector as soon as 2050, with UK Industrial Fusion Solutions, which is behind the Step prototype, calling it “the UK’s Nasa moment”.

James Naish, Labour MP for Rushcliffe and chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fusion Energy, said: “The UK remains a world-leader in this technology and it is extremely important that we don’t cede ground to others, given the industry could be worth around $40trn [£30trn] globally by 2050.

“I understand that there are a lot of sceptics out there but companies like [the Oxford-based] Tokamak Energy are making rapid progress in bringing fusion technologies to commercialisation, and I’m hopeful that this green industry will be one of a number of emerging industries which deliver the economic growth that successive UK governments have aspired to see.”

Jet reactor Vessel Interior (Photo: United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority)

“The technology could provide a substantial portion of our baseload energy needs, powering our homes and businesses with a clean, limitless abundance of power,” climate minister Kerry McCarthy told The i Paper.

Sceptics, however, are likely to dismiss the energy source as a pipe dream, and one that cannot be relied upon to deliver in the years ahead.

But those behind the fusion energy push insist it is a matter of “when, not if” and believe the dividends of the UK being among the pioneers in scaling up a new technology could be hugely valuable to UK plc, as well as the planet.

“Fusion is so energy dense, you only need a very minimal amount of resources to produce the desired energy output required in comparison to, say, burning coal or fossil fuels,” Cheong said. “So you get the same output of energy many, many million times that of burning the same amount of fossil fuel, coal, oil and gas – except it’s carbon-free at the point of generation and without the long-term waste storage issues with traditional nuclear fission.

“That is why it was called the Holy Grail.”

How does fusion energy work?

Ever since Albert Einstein came up with his equation E=mc², scientists have strived to harness the energy that powers the stars. While demonstrably possible – we just need to look at our sun to see it works – replicating it in a man-made reactor has proved more difficult.

Unlike fission, which releases energy by splitting nuclei, fusion forces two or more lighter nuclei, usually hydrogen isotopes (atoms with the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons), into a heavier nucleus. This produces an enormous amount of energy. But to create the conditions to force the two positively charged hydrogen nuclei together (which naturally repel one another) requires monumental amounts of pressure and heat. This creates what is known as an “ionised gas” or plasma that holds a temperature up to 100 million degrees Celsius. Being able to maintain and control this plasma to extract energy is key to making fusion viable. 

How is it a clean, limitless supply of energy? 

The fuel needed to deliver fusion is hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium. Deuterium can be extracted from seawater. Tritium is more scarce, so it is more complex to source, but can be obtained through the radioactive half-life decay of lithium and can largely be reused by fusion reactors in a self-sustaining cycle. What makes fusion so appealing is that just one gram of fusion fuel can produce more energy than 10 tonnes of burning coal. The waste by-products are largely just water and helium, an inert gas, which means it is generally unreactive with other substances.