Oxfordshire fusion companies head to London for conference

This week the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership, alongside a host of other Oxfordshire-based organizations, will be heading to London to take part in Fusion 22 – a major event that aims to bring greater awareness as to the potential of fusion energy, and there’s good reason as to why the county will be represented so heavily in the capital.

Held at the world-famous Science Museum, event organizers aim to bring together the ‘whole fusion industry’ to demonstrate the sector’s incredible potential and how it can be the cornerstone of a clean future, as well as highlighting the need for further, innovative collaboration.

The reason for such a presence at a major fusion conference is that Oxfordshire-based companies and experiments are already showing the considerable potential of fusion as a clean, energy source. New, unparalleled successes in its evolution are happening more and more regularly.

Just at the beginning of this year, the acceleration of fusion became further apparent through results recorded at the Culham Science Center’s Joint European Torus (JET) facility. It announced that 59 megajoules of sustained fusion energy was achieved over a five-second period, with JET saying that this level more than doubled previous records dating back to 1997 – the previous high being 22 megajoules.

In addition – with companies such as Tokamak Energy and First Light Fusion already calling Oxfordshire ‘home’ – it’s no surprise that the Canadian-based industry leader, General Fusion has taken notice of these strengths and last summer announced it will build its Fusion Demonstration Plant (FDP) at Culham, further adding to Oxfordshire’s depth and reputation as a ‘powerhouse’ in the development of fusion energy.