A decision looms over an ambitious bid to build the world’s first prototype nuclear fusion plant on the Severn Estuary, providing potentially limitless clean energy. It comes as industry giants Toshiba, Thales and Renishaw have thrown their weight behind the project for the Severn Edge sites at the decommissioned nuclear power stations in Oldbury in South Gloucestershire and nearby Berkeley, Gloucestershire.
The bid is on a shortlist of five across the country to be home to the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s (UKAEA’s) flagship Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (Step) programme, whose pioneering reactor would generate power using the same processes as inside the sun. A council meeting last week was told the technical assessments had been completed and the signs remained “very positive” for the region to attract the project.
And with the Government nearing its decision on which of the five locations will be given the nod, economic powerhouse partnership the Western Gateway, which is leading the bid to bring the plant to the region with the aim of proving the technology’s commercial viability, says Toshiba, Thales and Renishaw have announced their backing for Severn Edge. They are among 28 businesses and organisations, including four universities and political leaders, who have written to the UKAEA pledging their “strong support”.
Read more: South Gloucestershire nuclear fusion plant bid reaches final five
Tony Burton, electrical multinational Thales’s director of cyber security and trust, said: “We passionately believe that bringing Step to the Severn region will ensure it has the industrial and scientific capabilities, as well as the existing and future skills capacity it needs to be successful.” Phil Smith, managing director for Business West, a coalition representing 24,000 South West businesses, said in a letter to UKAEA: “By connecting Step to our world-class science and innovation ecosystem in digital, cyber, construction and high-value manufacturing, we passionately believe that the South West and Wales have the capabilities, capacity and talented workforce to make the vision for Step a reality.”
Katherine Bennett, chair of the Western Gateway, the pan-regional economic partnership from Swindon to Swansea, said: “We know that the Western Gateway area offers the national Step programme the best possible access to the most advanced technical skills and expert supply chains to ensure the UK is world-leading in developing this clean energy solution.” She said Step would mean billions of pounds of investment and that Severn Edge offered unique opportunities to “level up communities in Wales and England that are at severe risk of being left behind”.
A report to a full council meeting of South Gloucestershire Council on Wednesday, May 18, said: “The technical and commercial assessment phase with the UKAEA has now been completed and the indications are that the Severn Edge Step fusion nomination remains in a very positive position with a robust and ready-to-go technical status. Whilst there are challenges associated with a major infrastructure project of this scale, these are well understood at Oldbury & Berkeley and have flexible mitigation options.
“A recommendation will now go to the secretary of state. He and UKAEA have shared their expectation that a decision will be made not later than the end of the calendar year. It is possible that that timeframe could be shortened.
“The Western Gateway team are now intensifying MP and industry engagement in particular to ensure continued broad support for the nomination. Public engagement undertaken in February 2022 included face-to-face engagement with circa 250 people and a wealth of supportive comments for the nomination.”
Fusion replicates the processes of stars in a super-heated chamber on earth, where atoms are fused to release energy, creating nearly four-million times more power per kilogram of fuel than by burning coal or gas. The Step Tokamak, to be built by 2040, works by heating atoms to 10 times hotter than the centre of the sun forming a plasma in which they smash together – nuclear fusion – to produce heavier atoms.
This releases massive energy which is converted to power a turbine and generate electricity, like a regular power station. Giant magnets keep the super-heated plasma away from the Tokamak’s edges, and the system is said to be fail-safe.
Fusion is different from fission, which is used in traditional nuclear power stations where atoms are split apart to release energy instead of being fused together.
