Oxfordshire start-up hopes to transform nuclear fusion production - BBC
Oxfordshire start-up hopes to transform nuclear fusion production - BBC News
Oxfordshire start-up hopes to transform nuclear fusion production
- Published
A start-up business is hopeful it could revolutionise the production of energy.
First Light Fusion in Yarnton, Oxfordshire has been investigating how nuclear fusion could be generated on a large scale.
Physicists have pursued the technology for decades as it could offer a source of near-limitless clean energy to power homes across the globe.
The company is planning a new bigger testing site and is looking to treble its workforce.
First Light Fusion is one of several organisations in Oxfordshire developing fusion and attracting high-profile interest.
Researchers there have been using gunpowder to develop fusion energy.
Rosie Barker, a scientist at the company, said she is hopeful that the energy "can be harnessed and used to power our homes".
What is nuclear fusion?
In nuclear fusion, pairs of tiny particles called atoms are heated and forced together to make one heavier one.
It is the process that gives the Sun its energy and scientists have been trying to recreate it on earth since the 1960s.
Unlike the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas, it doesn't produce climate harming greenhouse gases, making it more sustainable.
CEO of First Light Fusion, Dr Nick Hawker, believes that it is important to work not only on the physics but the engineering challenges too.
"That's where we need to build the technology up," he said.
"There are people with more money than us, that's for sure, but it's not necessarily always the people with the most money that win," Dr Hawker added.
First Light has plans for a new, larger base at Culham Centre for Fusion and Energy, with construction expected to begin in 2024.
But it is likely to take decades before fusion energy could create power on a global scale.
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Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: nuclear
Nuclear energy provides almost 20 percent of the U.S. electricity supply. Advocates have called for an expanded role for nuclear as an emissions-free fuel source. But the economics of building new reactors are daunting. In addition, lingering safety concerns are an institutionalized part of the calculation of nuclear regulation, and highly radioactive nuclear waste remains a can that public officials have been inclined to kick down the road. The Energy Information Administration projects a sharp decline in nuclear power generation over the next decade, as new nuclear plants — two are planned — are more than offset by anticipated retirements of several operating reactors.