STEP’s power output goal is more modest – a net gain of 100MW – but unlike ITER, it will be connected to the ordinary electricity grid to understand how a fusion plant operates day in, day out. The hope is it will turn 50 megawatts of power into 500MW, proving a net gain is possible. That might change in 2025, when the world’s biggest fusion project, ITER in France, is due to switch on. No fusion reactor has yet produced more power than it consumed. Reproducing the way the sun makes energy, by fusing hydrogen together to make helium, requires significant energy on Earth to heat and control the hydrogen with huge magnets. But fusion faces big challenges to play that role. The plant is pitched as an important plank in efforts to hit the UK’s target of net zero emissions by 2050. Francis Livens at the University of Manchester, UK, says the cost and timeline are “ambitious but not implausible”.Ībout UK being ‘on the verge’ of nuclear fusion Ian Chapman at the UKAEA says STEP may cost around £2 billion, the equivalent cost in today’s money of building the Joint European Torus (JET), an existing fusion reactor in the UK that was constructed in the 1980s. The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), the government body overseeing STEP, hopes construction could begin around 2030, with the plant operating as soon as 2040. Prime minister Boris Johnson last year committed an extra £200 million to flesh out the possibility of building the project, known as the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP). However, there are still major hurdles to overcome before it could start generating power. The UK today embarked on a step toward building the world’s first nuclear fusion power station, by launching a search for a 100-plus hectare site where it can be plugged into the electricity grid. A model of the proposed STEP fusion power plant
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