Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production
Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP), is a spherical tokamak concept proposed by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority and funded by UK government.[1][2] The project aims to produce net electricity from fusion on a timescale of 2040.
In September 2019 the United Kingdom announced a planned £200-million (US$248-million) investment to produce a design for a fusion facility named the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP). The funding covers the initial five year concept design phase. Once this phase is complete, a second detailed engineering design phase will precede construction of the device, which should be operational by the early 2040s.
Plans
The planned UK facility would be based on a ‘tokamak’ design that uses magnetic fields to confine a plasma of heavy isotopes of hydrogen, tritium and deuterium, which fuse under extreme heat and pressure. STEP would be a spherical tokamak that holds the plasma in a cored-apple shape. UKAEA’s MAST Upgrade spherical tokamak device, due to start operation in late 2020, will heavily inform the STEP design.
See also
- Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak, built in UK, and upgraded
- ITER, (originally the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), under construction
References
- ^ uk-wants-to-build-worlds-first-fusion-power-plant-20-years-from-now 2019
- ^ Gibney, Elizabeth (2019-10-11). "UK hatches plan to build world's first fusion power plant". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-019-03039-9.
External links
Fusion power, processes and devices | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core topics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Processes, methods |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Devices, experiments |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | This article about energy, its collection, its distribution, or its uses is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |