Not just space. Among the dreams that Jeff Bezos is trying to realize is that of nuclear fusion, a solution that has been pursued for decades to make atomic energy more efficient and cleaner.
To announce the construction of a demonstration plant was General Fusion, a Canadian startup in which the founder of Amazon has invested for more than ten years, which unveiled the project with the British Atomic Energy Authority (Ukaea) for the construction of a power station in the village of Culham, not far from Oxford, as part of a research project by the same Authority. The investment is around 400 million dollars.
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In reality it will not be a real power plant, but a plant “proof-of-concept”With which General Fusion aims to test its Magnetized Target Fusion (Mtf) technology before moving on to the construction of the first commercial plant.
Construction will begin in 2022 and is expected to take three years before the plant becomes fully operational.
«The General Fusion facility is a strong boost to our plans to develop a nuclear fusion industry in the UK and I am proud that Culham is becoming the home of such a frontier and potentially disrutpiveBritish Science Minister Amanda Solloway said in a statement.
General Fusion has recently completed a $ 100 million funding round. If the Canadian startup’s technology turns out to be efficient it would be a breakthrough decisive for the atomic energy sector, held back all over the world by the risks associated with radioactive leaks and the production of waste that remain active for centuries in plants based on nuclear fission. The fusion, still largely at an experimental level, is instead based on the union of two atoms, increasing production efficiency and drastically reducing radioactive waste. But for the moment the dream of nuclear fusion has still remained a chimera that fails to reach a positive balance between the energy input for the fusion and that produced by the reaction, thus inhibiting commercial use. In Europe, the plant for the Iter project is already under construction: a 20 billion euro project that was started in France, in which Great Britain also participates. And which is not expected to be operational until 2035.