The Joint European Torus (JET) is the largest and most powerful operational tokamak machine, where temperatures can reach levels 10 times hotter than the centre of the sun.

Two newly announced North American initiatives aim to accelerate the deployment of fusion technologies for power generation. In Canada, Bruce Power, General Fusion, and the Nuclear Innovation Institute (NII) will work together to evaluate potential deployment of a fusion power plant in Ontario.

“Fusion energy has the potential to produce a stable, reliable and low-carbon power source that could be critical in a decarbonised energy future. Our involvement will bring together the best of UK and international expertise to solve the challenges associated with fusion energy,”

Canada’s General Fusion announced that it had achieved several aggressive performance goals of a prototype system for its Fusion Demonstration Plant (FDP).

Korea's National Fusion Research Institute announced in November that plasma operation at 100 million degrees Celsius, an essential requirement for nuclear fusion, successfully continued for 30 seconds during the latest tests at the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) facility.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) announced on 1 December that it has closed on more than $1.8 billion in Series B funding to commercialise fusion energy. This includes capital to construct, commission, and operate SPARC, the world’s first commercially relevant net energy fusion machine.

Laser fusion is a method of igniting nuclear fusion reactions and is a potential alternative to magnetic confinement.

“There's a real future for fusion to be part of this climate change and clean energy discussion,” said Kirtley, adding that other fusion energy companies were also pushing the timeline forward.

This paper sets out the UK Government’s strategy to move from a fusion science superpower to a fusion industry superpower.

As set out in Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, released in November 2020, the government wants the UK to be the first country in the world to commercialise fusion energy technology.