(Source: Times Online, link via NextBigFuture)

BRITISH scientists have drawn up plans to build the world’s first nuclear fusion power station. They say it could be pouring electricity into the National Grid within 20 years.

Nuclear fusion, the power that lies at the heart of the sun, offers the prospect of clean, safe, carbon-free power with a minimum of radioactive waste. But despite decades of research the technical problems have seemed insurmountable.

This weekend, however, Research Councils UK (RCUK), which oversees the British government’s spending on science and technology, has said it believes that many of those obstacles are close to being overcome.

It wants to commit Britain to a 20-year research and construction plan that would see a fusion power station in operation around 2030. Didcot in Oxfordshire is among the sites under consideration for the so-called Hiper project.

“The potential of fusion energy to contribute to the future global energy system is sufficiently large that it should be pursued in the UK,” said a report published by RCUK.

It also follows the recent start-up of America’s National Ignition Facility, in California, which has been designed to demonstrate the principle of laser fusion. There, 192 giant lasers have been installed, collectively capable of generating 500 trillion watts — 1,000 times the power of the US national grid — for a fraction of a second.

That energy will be focused on a tiny fuel pellet of frozen hydrogen which, in theory, should be compressed and heated to 100mC — so hot that the atoms within it start to fuse.

“The world is watching and waiting to see what happens at NIF,” said the report, calling this “a seminal moment” in the development of fusion.

Mike Dunne, project co-ordinator for Hiper, agreed. “The NIF laser is performing well — they have already achieved fusion reactions but so far they are putting in much more energy than they are getting out.

“The crucial test will come this autumn when they ramp up the power. In theory they should start generating more power than they put in and if that happens it will be a clear demonstration to the world that laser fusion is ready to be harnessed. So far the signs are very good.”

Continue reading 'UK plans first nuclear fusion power plant'...

UPDATE

RCUK: Recent reports that RCUK is planning to invest in the development of a new fusion power station are inaccurate.

The Expert Group convened by RCUK to help develop our UK fusion for energy strategy concluded that:

"The science and engineering research challenges ahead to realise fusion as a commercial energy source are major and the timescales are long and uncertain. Fusion is likely to contribute to energy systems after 2050."

Hah. Surprise.

IOW: Fusion is the energy source of the future... and always will be :-p