Fusion Reactors

(asked on 30th September 2019) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of leaving Euratom on the (a) cost to the public purse of developing and (b) ability of the UK to develop commercially viable fusion power plants.


Answered by
Chris Skidmore Portrait
Chris Skidmore
This question was answered on 3rd October 2019

As announced over the weekend, the government has just approved a ground-breaking commitment to fund the first five-year phase of the STEP programme costing £220m. This phase will complete detailed design and development work will allow the UK to maintain its world-leading status in fusion and enable cost estimates for the full programme to be made in detail. This will take into account any cost or programme changes that may or may not need to be made as a result of the U.K. leaving the Euratom treaty. The Government acknowledges the value of international collaboration in this and other scientific fields and is exploring all options for maintaining that collaboration after we leave the EU and Euratom.

Reticulating Splines