Government today told the South West that the region could be the location for the UK’s prototype fusion plant, which works on the same principles that power our sun.
The government announcement means that the Severn Edge nomination to develop the UK’s first prototype plant, is now one of five sites through to the next phase of the national selection process.
If successful, the Severn Edge nomination could be given the go-ahead by the Department for Business Energy & Industrial Strategy, by the end of next year.
Today’s decision on the selection process could pave the way for the fusion plant to be created at Berkeley in Gloucestershire, and at Oldbury in South Gloucestershire.
The prototype plant could lead to thousands of highly skilled jobs across the South West region, into South Wales and the West Midlands.
Severn Edge is the site where the STEP programme -Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production- could be built to support the UK’s transformation to a low carbon economy. It is targeting operations around 2040.
