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Raphael Thys
1/10 AL_A's proposed demonstration plant in Culham Science Centre in South Oxfordshire for Canadian clean energy pioneer General Fusion (approved 2023)
The proposed 10,500m² facility at the Culham Science Centre was handed a resolution to grant planning permission by South Oxfordshire District Council’s planning committee on Wednesday (11 January).
No nuclear fusion power plant has yet been built that generates more energy than it takes to run, though last month US government scientists made a breakthrough by achieving a net energy gain in a fusion reaction for the first time.
AL_A first revealed its concept proposals for a test-bed facility in 2021. The project, developed by Canadian clean energy pioneer General Fusion, will be used to showcase and explain the emerging technology which ultimately aims to create limitless, zero-carbon power.
The council's green light for the scheme at the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s (UKAEA) Culham Campus south of Oxford marks a major step forward for the company, which has been backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for more than a decade.
According to General Fusion, the planned building is part of the company’s drive to make fusion power a world-saving reality and to create an ‘emotional connection’ between the public and the new technology.
Levete’s demonstration plant would ‘show off fusion energy to the world by inviting it in, prompting questions, promoting dialogue, and providing opportunities to learn’, creating ‘a place where the sustainable clean energy future is fully experienced’.
This initial scheme will show off General Fusion’s magnetised target fusion (MTF) technology ahead of work on proposed commercial, energy-producing plants.
The 10,500m2 demonstration project will be built to 70 per cent scale of a commercial power plant, creating fusion conditions ‘in a power plant-relevant environment’ reaching temperatures of more than 100 million degrees Celsius.
Speaking about the design drivers for the demonstration project, an AL_A spokesperson said it was a ‘direct reflection of the processes and equipment it will house’, adding that its form was ‘conceived as an extension of the fusion machine [with] the radial arrangement providing maximum operational efficiency’.
At its heart will be a 38m-high cylindrical, concrete fusion hall housing General Fusion’s magnetised target fusion machine. Around this will be wrapped a ‘delicate, translucent fabric’ designed to ‘soften the building’s appearance, and optimise natural ventilation’.
Levete described the approval as a ‘huge milestone and testament to the close collaboration between the team, General Fusion and UKAEA’.
She said: ‘The building will not only be highly efficient but one that expresses the technological optimism of fusion to solve the energy problems of the world. The design projects a confident message to the public about the extraordinary potential of this technology. It represents a clear shift in the relationship between environment and industry, moving from one of opposition to one of symbiosis.’
General Fusion was set up in 2002 and is funded by a global syndicate of ‘leading energy venture capital firms, industry leaders, and technology pioneers’.
Work could start on site this summer with the company hoping to have the fusion machine commissioned in 2026 and fully operational by early 2027.
AL_A's proposed demonstration plant in Culham Science Centre in South Oxfordshire for Canadian clean energy pioneer General Fusion (approved 2023)