Nuclear fusion reactor prototype to be unveiled in the UK
Updated : 16:53
A prototype nuclear fusion reactor will be unveiled during Britain's Royal Society summer science exhibition, the country's leading showcase for new research.
Start-up group Tokamak Energy, a subsidiary of the UK government's Culham Laboratory, said it expected electricity to be produced from nuclear fusion within a decade, as Britain aims to shift towards green energies.
The prototype is understood to be an upgrade of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) that is currently being built in southern France, in a project funded by the European Union, US, Japan, India, China, Russia and South Korea.
Its construction started in 2013, and as of June 2015 the building costs were over $14bn, three times the original figure.
Based on the 'tokamak' concept of magnetic confinement, in which the plasma is contained in a doughnut-shaped vacuum vessel, the reactor aims to demonstrate the principle of producing more energy from the fusion process than is used to initiate it, something that has not yet been achieved in any fusion reactor.
Microsoft's founder Bill Gates showed his commitment to renewable energies last week in an interview with the Financial Times, pointing out that he planned to double his personal investment in green technology, from nuclear and wind to batteries and synthetic photosynthesis, to $ 2bn over the next five years.
Gates also called for a tripling of public support for renewables research to help fight climate change.
UK Energy Research Centre research director Jim Watson urged caution about shifting public funding to research from the deployment of technologies such as solar photovoltaics and offshore wind.
“Of course I am not averse to putting more money into energy research but I would have a problem about shifting public funding to research from the deployment of technologies, ”he said.
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