Nuclear fusion: America and Great Britain work together

The US and British governments have agreed on strategic cooperation to advance energy production through nuclear fusion and commercialize it as quickly as possible. A committee set up by the energy ministries of the two countries is scheduled to meet in early 2024, in which research institutes, universities and private companies will also participate. Together they should explore and promote opportunities for collaboration.

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Building on earlier joint ventures in nuclear fusion research and development, a closer partnership now aims to be formed. Notice from the US Department of Energy is called Examples include the collaboration between the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Commission and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory for Fusion and the Mega-Amp Spherical Tokamak at Culham, UK, and the US DIII-D National Fusion Facility.

“Unlimited Energy”

For the UK government, it said in February this year that fusion energy has the potential to provide unlimited, safe and low-carbon energy for future generations around the world. In Great Britain, more precisely, in West Burton, in the central English province of Nottinghamshire, a prototype of a nuclear fusion reactor is to be built by 2040, the “STEP” project – a spherical tokamak for energy production.

For Great Britain and the United States, nuclear fusion appears to be a way to generate climate-friendly energy. The U.S. government’s budget for 2024 includes $4 billion for research into technologies that will help it reach its climate goal of net zero by 2050, including $1 billion for research on fusion energy. Last year, a laser fusion experiment at the US’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) succeeded in producing more energy than had previously been put in place.

(Processor)