General Fusion, a battalion of Canadian nuclear company Jeff Bezos and other large investors, will build a Fusion Demonstration (FDP) pilot plant in Oxfordshire. The project has already received a “green light” from the UK Atomic Energy Commission (UKEAA).
The plant will be located on the former Air Majesty Air Force Base, which passed into the hands of the British Energy Controller in 1960, and is currently the archive for several nuclear fusion projects.
Construction should begin in the second half of next year and be ready by 2025.
According to the announcement, the FDP will feature General Fusion’s exclusive Magnetized Target Fusion (MDF) technology. If successful, the company will take a “second step” to creating a business center.
In a post on General Fusion’s blog, the company’s CEO Christopher Maury explained that the complex would be “powerful enough to heat hydrogen plasma fuel to a melting temperature of 150 million degrees.”
“Using our Vibrant Magnified Target Fusion (MDF) technology, FDP technology is designed to refine performance measurements, which will become a measure of our technology’s ability to effectively produce, durable and easily respond to fluctuating demand for electricity.”
According to General Fusion, one kilogram of fusion fuel can power 10,000 homes a year.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that World Power, the nuclear power company founded by Bill Gates, and Pacific Corp, owned by Warren Buffett, had signed a contract to build a “natrium” reactor at a coal plant in Wyoming, USA.
