The £45 million, 1.4MW energy mission will be focused at the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s Culham Campus in Oxfordshire.
Announced yesterday, Monday 16th March, the UK government will begin the Sunrise project in June, utilising the world’s most advanced AI supercomputer.
Funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), technology will initially focus on addressing key nuclear fusion challenges such as plasma turbulence, materials development, and tritium fuel breeding. ‘Spillover benefits’ are also expected to support other clean energy initiatives.
AMD, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Dell Technologies, Intel, UKAE, University of Cambridge and WEKA are all listed as partners on the ‘energy mission’. The project has been described by Intel’s Simon Wilyman, GM UK/I & Northern Europe, as advancing ‘a grand milestone in the evolution of our civilisation’ — the commercialisation of fusion power.
‘We can be proud that Britain will lead the way on research, innovation and skills for a future of limitless fusion energy,’ said Lord Vallance, Minister for Science, Innovation, Research and Nuclear. ‘By backing our fusion industry, we are not only securing our future energy independence, but from innovation and research to engineers, we are also providing the skilled clean energy jobs of the future for British people.’
Sunrise forms a key part of the UK’s Fusion Strategy, which was also published this week. Among other things, the roadmap looks to deliver 10,000 jobs by 2030, drive investment and prepare for the real world deployment of fusion energy. This includes Britain becoming the first country to secure private investment in the technology, with opportunities including a £200 million Construction Partner contract to convert a former Nottinghamshire coal plant into the global fusion frontrunner.
This will be completed by 2040 as part of a wider transformation of UK Industrial Fusion Solutions to UK Fusion Energy, an entity that will be supported with £1.3 billion in funding. Britain will also be the first to present a market framework for fusion technology, with £50 million spent on training and up-skilling the emerging workforce.
‘From Nottinghamshire to Cumbria, and from the Oxford-Cambridge corridor to South Yorkshire, Britain has long been at the forefront of fusion energy,’ explained Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy for Energy and Net Zero. ‘With our Fusion Strategy, we’re going further — backing industry, supporting over 10,000 jobs, and paving the way for the ultimate long term energy security solution — clean, virtually limitless energy powered by British ingenuity and determination.’
‘Commercial fusion power is scheduled to be online in the 2030s, and today’s commitment to establish a strong market framework is another step towards the UK being at the very heart of this generational industrial opportunity,’ said Tristan Denton, UK Director of the Fusion Energy Association. ‘The UK has world-class capabilities, and this industrially focused strategy means the sector can confidently view the UK as a great place for fusion development, deployment, and supply. We welcome the UK’s continuing leadership in the global drive to commercial fusion.’
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