- The nuclear fusion company General Fusion is building a demonstration plant in the UK.
- Jeff Bezos has been an investor in General Fusion for over a decade.
- The new facility is scheduled to begin construction next year and is scheduled to go into operation by 2025.
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General Fusion, a Canadian company backed by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, announced the construction of a nuclear fusion facility in the UK on Thursday.
General Fusion and the UK Atomic Energy Agency (UKAEA) have announced a joint project in which General Fusion will build a fusion demonstration facility in the village of Culham, near Oxford.
The facility will be a proof of concept that will allow General Fusion to demonstrate its Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) technology before construction of its first commercial facility begins.
Construction will begin in 2022, according to General Fusion, and it is expected to take around three years for the plant to open.
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“This new General Fusion facility is a huge boost to our plans to develop a fusion industry in the UK and I am thrilled that Culham will be home to such an innovative and potentially transformative project,” said UK Science Secretary Amanda Solloway in a statement.
The BBC reports that Bezos has been involved in General Fusion for over a decade and the company raised $ 100 million in its most recent funding round.
Nuclear fusion is still an experimental source of energy. It differs from nuclear fission, which modern nuclear power plants use to generate energy.
While splitting atoms split, fusion occurs when two atoms collide and form a heavier atom. Commercially viable fusion is in great demand as it would theoretically produce much more energy than nuclear fission and far fewer radioactive by-products.
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