UK Atomic Energy Authority to start operating its spherical tokamak next year

Nuclear fusion is one of the most promising options for generating large amounts of carbon-free energy in the future.

The world needs new, cleaner ways to supply our increasing energy demand, as concerns grow over climate change and declining supplies of fossil fuels. Power stations using fusion would have a number of advantages:

• No carbon emissions. The only by-products of fusion reactions are small amounts of helium, which is an inert gas that will not add to atmospheric pollution.
• Abundant fuels. Deuterium can be extracted from water and tritium is produced from lithium, which is found in the earth's crust. Fuel supplies will therefore last for millions of years.
• Energy efficiency. One kilogram of fusion fuel can provide the same amount of energy as 10 million kilograms of fossil fuel.
• No long-lived radioactive waste. Only plant components become radioactive and these will be safe to recycle or dispose of conventionally within 100 years.
• Safety. The small amounts of fuel used in fusion devices (about the weight of a postage stamp at any one time) means that a large-scale nuclear accident is not possible.
• Reliable power. Fusion power plants should provide a baseload supply of large amounts of electricity, at costs that are estimated to be broadly similar to other energy sources.

Fusion is the process that heats the Sun and all other stars, where atomic nuclei collide together and release energy (in the form of neutrons, see diagram on the right). Fusion scientists and engineers are developing the technology to use this process in tomorrow's power stations.

To get energy from fusion, gas from a combination of types of hydrogen – deuterium and tritium – is heated to very high temperatures (100 million degrees Celsius). One way to achieve these conditions is a method called ‘magnetic confinement' – controlling the hot gas (known as a plasma) with strong magnets. The most promising device for this is the ‘tokamak', a Russian word for a ring-shaped magnetic chamber.

The United Kingdom's fusion research programme is based at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) in Oxfordshire. The work is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and by the European Union under the Euratom treaty.