Green light for nuclear fusion demonstration plant

Approval has been given for a plant demonstrating nuclear fusion technology in Oxfordshire that is backed by the UK Government as well as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Construction of the facility is expected to start this summer, after South Oxfordshire District Council’s planning committee gave it permission yesterday (11 January).

The 10,500 square metre building will be located at the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority’s (UKAEA) Culham Science Centre, seven miles south of Oxford, where there is a cluster of fusion-focused projects.

Nuclear fusion is based on the same physical reactions that power the sun and is the process by which two light atomic nuclei combine while releasing large amounts of energy. The technology is thought to have significant potential to deliver safe, sustainable, low-carbon energy for future generations.

When construction is complete, Canadian-based company General Fusion will lease the facility from the UKAEA.

The company’s fusion machine is expected to be commissioned in 2026 and fully operational by early 2027.

The UKAEA said being at Culham would allow General Fusion to “access world-leading science and engineering capabilities”, and benefit from the UK’s existing fusion-energy supply chains.

The facility will not generate energy itself, but is intended to demonstrate the viability of the magnetised target fusion technology.

Built to 70 per cent scale of a commercial power plant, it will “create fusion conditions in a power plant-relevant environment”, reaching temperatures of more than 100 million degrees Celsius.

The UKAEA said this is “a crucial step on the path to eventually powering homes, businesses and industry with zero-carbon fusion energy”.

Nuclear fusion has been researched for decades, so far without it successfully generating power in a practical and economic way.

General Fusion chief executive Greg Twinney said he expected the project to lead to around 200 jobs during its construction.

UKAEA chief executive Professor Ian Chapman said: “The UKAEA welcomes this milestone as it aligns with our strategy to create clusters that accelerate innovation in fusion and related technologies, and support public-private partnerships to thrive.”

Culham was announced as the site for the project in 2021with then science minister Amanda Solloway calling the deal with General Fusion “a huge boost for our plans to develop a fusion industry in the UK”.

At the time, the development was said to cost around US$400m (£329m). General Fusion secured backing from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2011, via his Bezos Expeditions venture capital fund.

The planned new demonstration plant, designed by architects AL_A, will be 10,509 square metres in area, of which 6,983 square metres will be process space and 3,299 square metres office and support space.

At the building’s core will be a 38-metre cylindrical demonstration hall housing the technology, with a diameter of 50 metres. This will be clad in transparent ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), a plastic material that can be inflated with air to form insulating pillows.

Circling the cylinder will be support spaces such as laboratories, offices and storage rooms, with a height of 11 metres and connected to the demonstration hall by a “glazed atrium”.

South Oxfordshire council’s landscape officer raised concerns about the effects of the development on views. But the officer assessing the application judged that the project’s benefits “outweigh the harm to the visual impact of the surrounding countryside”.

The development forms part of a wider overhaul of the Culham Science Centre site, backed by £184m of UK Government investment. As well as the fusion demonstration plant, this includes an advanced robotics test facility and a reception centre.

Last October, Kier was awarded a £27m contract to build an 8,000 square metre research and development building at Culham, including engineering and office space for a range of companies.

And in August 2022, UKAEA head of construction Dan Bowerman told Construction News that “a lot of projects are underway – some in tender, some in the design stage,” adding: “There are upcoming tender opportunities for different sizes of projects. The General Fusion project opportunity is huge.”

But he said that the related construction requirements were usually relatively straightforward, explaining: “We build sheds with really strong foundations. Our buildings are not that unique – the stuff we put in them is. You may see some high structural-load requirements or high-power loads, but this is all within the capabilities of a tier one or tier two contractor.”

The funding for Culham is separate to the government’s £10bn Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) fusion research programme, which will see a prototype plant built at West Burton in Nottinghamshire.