Former prime minister, Sir Tony Blair, underlined his continued
support for fusion energy and its role in addressing energy
security and climate change for generations to come.
During a recent visit to UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) in
Oxfordshire, Sir Tony was briefed by fusion leaders on the
progress of STEP – the UK’s prototype fusion plant being built at
West Burton, Nottinghamshire, to demonstrate the ability to put
net electricity on the grid.
Sir Tony said: “Fusion promises to be a safe, low carbon and
sustainable part of the world’s future energy supply and it is
critical that we keep striving forwards to tackle one of the
greatest scientific and engineering challenges of our time.
“It was fantastic to see and hear about the progress being made
by UKAEA today and to meet the people who are working towards
making fusion energy an environmentally responsible part of the
world’s future energy mix.”
Fusion energy has the potential to provide ‘baseload’ power,
complementing renewable and other low carbon energy sources as a
share of many countries’ energy portfolios.
Tony Blair
Institute For Global Change has previously championed
pivot-support-programmes to harness the technology transfer from
fusion to adjacent sectors.
Ian Chapman, UKAEA CEO, said: “The UK has a huge opportunity to
become a global exporter of fusion technology, which promises to
be a part of the low carbon energy mix in the second half of the
century.
“Sir Tony was very interested in discussing the work we are doing
at UKAEA, which will help address global challenges as well as
create jobs and drive economic growth in fusion-focused and
adjacent fields.”
As part of the visit, Sir Tony experienced a close-up of UKAEA’s
Joint European Torus (JET) facility which produced landmark
results announced earlier this year.
He also met with scientists and engineers for a behind-the-scenes
tour of materials science and robotics facilities.
