STEP’s engineer hopes to win the race against global rivals for clean, limitless power.
According to the engineer in charge of the UK’s latest scheme to achieve the dream of unlimited clean energy, a commercial nuclear fusion plant could be operational as early as 2040.
Paul Methven oversees the design of UK Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production. This reactor aims to become the first fusion reactor in the world to produce more power than it consumes.
The machine will be built at the site of West Burton, a former coal-fired power plant in Nottinghamshire. It will replace the Joint European Torus project (JET), which was run outside Oxford for its last two month’s experiments.
Mr Methven stated: “Our STEP project will ensure that the UK maintains its global leadership in fusion research. We could at best have a viable technology in the early 2040s, and a commercial plant would follow quickly thereafter.
Scientists at JET have released data and conclusions of their last experiments, with positive implications for the successor.
Mr Methven stated: “The JET was round like a donut.
The new machine’s shape will change based on the results. It will be longer upwards. The magnetic fields that are used to control the reactions of the machine do not need to be as strong.
Mr Methven became chief executive of UK Industrial Fusion Solutions, the government-controlled company overseeing STEP, after a career in the Royal Navy. He was in charge of designing and purchasing the UK’s nuclear subs, such as hunter-killers, tactical nuclear fleet, and other nuclear submarines.
He believes that recent advancements mean that peaceful use of nuclear Fusion could be closer to reality than ever before – however, history shows us caution is still essential.
Fusion is the process of converting atoms into energy by using temperatures up to 200m Celsius.
The first time it was used during World War Two, with the development of the successful hydrogen bomb. But controlling such reactions in order to produce a constant supply of energy proved to be far more difficult.
The temperatures required to start fusion, which are 10 to 15 degrees hotter than the Sun, convert matter into “plasma”, which can melt any known material and is therefore impossible to contain. Magnetic fields are the only way to contain it.
The UK was hoping to solve this problem by relying on the EU’s £20bn International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project (ITER), currently under construction in south France. But Brexit has put an end that.
After Brexit, the EU removed all UK staff and contractors. However, 50-60 UK scientists took French citizenship to stay. ITER is now mired in cost overruns and technical issues.
STEP would be a new machine that uses a different design to solve the same problem of keeping plasmas white-hot safely contained in powerful magnetic fields.
Mr Methven estimates that the scheme will cost billions, but he is unable to predict exactly how many.
He said that it is very difficult to estimate the cost of unique projects that span decades, like this one. It’s on the same level as a nuclear plant, so it’s tens and tens billions of pounds.
“What I can tell you is that it will be worthwhile if we make it work. This will ensure that the UK remains at the forefront in fusion research, and UK companies remain at the forefront in any commercial development.
“And the suite of low-carbon technologies that we currently deploy is totally inadequate. We must try all technologies, including fusion.