UK takes giant leap forward in fusion power thanks to Tokamak reactor

Posted on 2 May 2017 by Tim Brown
The Tokamak ST40 fusion reactor, which has been switched on and taken the UK one step further towards generating electricity from the power of the stars - image courtesy of Tokamak Energy.

The UK's newest fusion reactor, ST40, was switched on last week, and has already managed to achieve 'first plasma'.

The company behind the reactor, Tokamak Energy, intends to produce a plasma temperature of 100 million degrees celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit) by 2018. That’s seven times hotter than the centre of the Sun and is the ‘fusion’ threshold, at which hydrogen atoms can begin to fuse into helium, unleashing limitless, clean energy in the process.…

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