A compact thermonuclear reactor will be built in the UK by 2025

British officials gave the green light and agreed on the details of setting up a promising thermonuclear reactor on the country’s territory based on the extraordinary policy. The demonstration plant is expected to be operational by 2025 and provide evidence for work on the proposed approach. The Canadian General Fusion will be involved in the development and construction of the reactor, but does not want to generate electricity for the protesters.

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Site with furnaces seen by the artist. Image source: General fusion

General Fusion of Barnaby, British Columbia, Canada began developing a relatively compact merger facility in 2009. MDF technology involves two methods of initiating and maintaining a thermonuclear reaction: sluggish contraction of the fuel target and magnetic control of the plasma.

Fuel is injected into the reactor, while a centrifugal shock wave is generated centered on the edge of the reactor working scale. This compresses the plasma held in a magnetic field inside the reactor and induces a fusion reaction. It is argued that this method makes it possible to use conventional room temperature copper knitting electromagnets for plasma control rather than expensive superconducting magnets. This is a serious benefit to the economic efficiency of the nuclear reactor.

An interesting method was also proposed to eliminate fusion energy. The nuclear reactor has an internal housing that rotates continuously. Inside the house, the centrifugal keys spread a uniform layer of a liquid layer of a lead-lithium alloy. The fast neutrons formed during thermonuclear fusion are absorbed by this layer, and this energy works to generate heat and electricity. The liquid metal blanket protects equipment and the environment from radiation.

Laboratory furnace. Image source: General fusion

Under laboratory conditions, General Fusion experts conducted more than 200,000 experiments with components of the fusion reactor on a scale of one to ten. The dimensions of the British demonstrator will be 70% of the dimensions of the future business establishment. The demonstrator should check the opinion and allow to accurately determine the profitability of the business facility. The demonstrator was not expected to produce electricity, it had to compress the fuel once a second and show the possibility of starting a thermonuclear fusion.

Construction of the demonstrator will begin in 2022 at the UKAEA’s Galham campus near Oxford. No site has yet been selected for future business installation. General Fusion is expected to operate the first commercial fusion nuclear reactor in the UK in the early 1930s.