Overview
- Science Minister Patrick Vallance set out a five‑year strategy to move fusion from lab research toward commercial demonstration.
- £1.3 billion will fund the Step spherical‑tokamak prototype at West Burton, which aims to begin operating in the early 2040s, according to project head Paul Methven.
- £180 million is allocated for a tritium‑manufacturing facility at Culham to develop a domestic fuel supply.
- The plan includes £50 million to train 2,000 specialists and a £45 million Sunrise AI supercomputer for plasma modelling, targeted to go live in June and building on UKAEA’s rapid‑simulation advances.
- Officials project around 10,000 sector jobs by 2030 and say the push will bolster energy security, while noting no country has yet produced grid‑usable electricity from fusion and Step must demonstrate true ‘wall‑socket’ power.