17 Jul (NucNet): The upper house of the UK’s parliament will hold a one-off evidence session looking into the prospects for nuclear fusion and the UK’s research and development landscape on 21 July 2015.
The House of Lords’ science and technology committee will question three key figures in the field of nuclear fusion research on a range of issues including the UK’s capability, levels of investment, and the timescale for commercialisation of fusion technologies.
The three are professor Steven Cowley, chief executive officer of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, professor of physics at Imperial College London and head of the Euratom/Culham Centre for Fusion Energy Fusion Association; Dr David Kingham, chief executive officer of Tokamak Energy, a company planning to build a fusion pilot plant; and Dr Sharon Ellis, deputy director of the research councils unit at the government’s department for business, innovation and skills.
The committee said today it will be questioning the experts on issues such as how much money the UK invests in nuclear fusion research and whether it is cost-effective; and what is the UK’s capability for nuclear fusion research.
Other issues include private nuclear fusion R&D in the UK and how well is it supported by the government; the likely timescale for commercialisation of nuclear fusion technologies; and whether there are any lessons to be learned from international research programmes into nuclear fusion, such as those under way in the US and China.
The committee said it will also want to know if the government’s nuclear strategy is “fit for purpose” in terms of fusion research and if it adequately recognises the contribution that the advancement of fusion technology could make to the nuclear energy landscape in the UK.
The UK’s fusion research programme is based at the 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.
CCFE said the UK contributes to fusion research in two main ways, through its own fusion programme, centred on the Mast (Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak) device; and through the operation of JET, Europe's flagship experiment.
CCFE said the UK programme also makes important contributions to preparations for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) project at Cadarache in France, and to theory, materials and technology research.
Details of the evidence session, which will be broadcast on Parliament TV, are online: http://bit.ly/1Va0cJt
