Green Energy in UK by 2040

The UK government expects to commission the country's first commercial reactor based on fusion technology in 2040. The BBC reported on Tuesday.

"The fusion power plant will be the first of its kind and will be completed by 2040 with the ability to connect directly to the grid," the BBC quoted the UK minister for business, energy and industrial strategy, Jacob William Rees-Mogg, as saying. He believes it will prove to the world "the commercial viability of fusion energy".

As the Broadcasting Corporation points out, the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) has secured more than £220 million from the UK government for the project. The reactor will be located near West Burton, Nottinghamshire, and will replace the coal-fired power plant run by the French concern EDF, which is scheduled to close by the end of 2022.

It is worth noting that unlike conventional nuclear fusion, the fusion of atoms, rather than fission, takes place during the fusion reaction. Similar processes are observed in nature inside stars, such as the Sun. UKAEA experts, cited by the Broadcasting Corporation, estimate that the technology has the potential to be a source of "vast amounts of green" energy, requiring very few raw materials to produce.

Developments in fusion, which scientists and business representatives call one of the "key factors in energy stability" of the future, are taking place in several of the world's leading countries. The most prominent of these is the ITER project, being undertaken jointly by China, the European Union, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the USA.

The reactor being built by the international community in Provence, France, is based on the tokamak facility developed by domestic scientists, which is considered to be the most promising device for controlled thermonuclear fusion.