Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps he has taken to support the development of nuclear fusion technology.

The results from the US are further evidence that fusion energy has enormous potential as a clean energy source. As set out in the UK Fusion Strategy, the UK is building on scientific advances like this to deliver commercially viable fusion energy.

The Government is investing over £700m in UK fusion research programmes and facilities over the next three years. In November the Government announced £42 million for the Fusion Industry Programme, which will build capability and spur commercial innovation by supporting UK businesses in solving the technical challenges of fusion, helping to. The Government also announced £84 million to continue operations at JET (Joint European Torus), the world’s most powerful fusion experiment. This autumn, the BEIS Secretary of State announced that West Burton in Nottinghamshire had been selected as the site for the UK’s STEP programme, which will design and build, by 2040, a prototype fusion power plant capable of putting electricity on the UK grid.