The UK has formed a new partnership with the US aimed at accelerating the development of fusion energy technologies, with the two nations agreeing to share access to facilities, bring together their top scientists and engineers, and jointly develop resilient supply chains for the nascent industry.
Announced yesterday, the partnership also aims to push other governments to adopt standardised international regulatory frameworks for fusion energy and help promote skills development.
The partnership was agreed in Washington DC yesterday by the UK’s Minister for Nuclear and Networks Andrew Bowie and the US Deputy Undersecretary at the Department for Energy David Turk. The first meeting under the new alliance is slated to take place in early 2024.
“International collaboration is key for advancing fusion and achieving our ambition of getting a commercial fusion reactor grid-ready by 2040,” said Bowie.
“The UK and the US are world-leaders in this technology, and pooling our resources will unlock new private sector investment. This bold new partnership will help turn our fusion ambitions into reality.”
It marks the first formal international fusion collaboration announced by the UK since the launch of the government’s £650m Fusion Futures Programme earlier this year, which aims to support technological development and training opportunities by providing dedicated funding to nuclear fusion developers.
The programme comes in addition to £700m that has already been allocated to UK fusion energy programmes by the government between 2022 and 2025.
Fusion involves mixing two forms of hydrogen and heating them to extreme temperatures, causing them to combine and release energy which is then harnessed to generate electricity.
Advocates of the technology view it as the ‘holy grail’ for clean energy, as they maintain it could provide near limitless supplies of clean power that could underpin a fully decarbonised energy system. But critics have long warned that the focus on a technology that remains years from commercialisation risks distracting from the development and deployment of clean energy technologies that could help cut emissions in the near term.
The UK is a leading national player in nuclear fusion R&D through the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s (UKAEA) dedicated campus in Culham, Oxfordshire. UK and US energy institutions have long collaborated on fusion research, including at both the Oxfordshire site and the DIII-D tokamak projects in California.
“The United States and the United Kingdom have long partnered on some of the world’s most ambitious scientific endeavours,” said Turk.
“I look forward to welcoming Minister Bowie to Washington to build on that partnership to advance fusion energy that could ultimately help us achieve our countries’ shared goal of ending the climate crisis.”
In related news, reports today indicate the government is looking to soon adopt a host of recent regulatory recommendations from its Electricity Networks Commissioner Nick Winser with regards to preparing Britain’s power grid for the growing influx of clean energy sources over the coming decades.
According to the Financial Times, the government is preparing to publish its response to Winser’s recent electricity networks review either as part of the Chancellor’s upcoming Autumn Statement or in a separate statement by Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Claire Coutinho, with proposed reforms likely to include measures to speed up grid connections and to compensate homeowners living near new high voltage power lines.
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