Written evidence submitted by Tokamak Energy Ltd (CGE0004)

 

 

This evidence is presented by Tokamak Energy Ltd and supported by our Scientific Advisory Board

 

If there was a new safe, clean energy technology, based on world-leading expertise in the UK, that could have a major global impact on carbon emissions by the 2030s and be an important source of clean energy for centuries to come…

 

…then we would make every effort to develop the technology quickly in the UK, even if there are great challenges in the technology development, wouldn’t we!

 

The good news is that there is such a technology – fusion energy from compact tokamaks with high temperature superconducting magnets.

 

 

 

Introduction

 

  1. Tokamak Energy Ltd is a private company that aims to accelerate the development and deployment of fusion energy.  The company is a spin-out from Culham Laboratory near Oxford which is currently the world-leading centre for magnetic confinement fusion energy research.  Fusion research is one of the very few areas today with enormous long term global economic potential where the UK has a distinctive global lead. We are seizing the moment when private investment in fusion energy is beginning to accelerate.

 

  1. Our approach at Tokamak Energy is essentially to combine the new technology of high field strength, high temperature superconducting magnets with the efficiency advantages of the spherical tokamak as pioneered at Culham Laboratory in the 1990s. The result is a better, stronger, smaller magnetic “bottle” to confine a plasma at high density and pressure for a long time with no energy dissipation in the magnets.

 

  1. Fusion energy from tokamaks will be clean and safe.  There is no emission of carbon from combustion, no long-lived radioactive waste and no risk of meltdown or proliferation.  There is plentiful fuel for mankind’s total needs for millennia (deuterium is abundant in sea-water; tritium can be bred in situ from lithium) and the energy density of the fuel is 10 million times greater than coal or oil.

 

  1. Tokamak Energy has received investment totalling over £30m to date from the UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund (UKI2S), the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Oxford Instruments, Legal and General Capital and several private investors.  In addition, Tokamak Energy has recently received grants from the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund, the Advanced Modular Reactor competition and the UKI2S Accelerator Programme for Technology Development from Innovate UK.

 

  1. Tokamak Energy has built three prototype tokamak devices, the latest of which has achieved plasma temperatures hotter that the centre of the sun.  The second pioneering device had all its magnets made from high temperatures superconductors and is on display at the Science Museum from October 2018 to May 2109.  The third device, the ST40, achieved plasma temperatures hotter than the centre of the sun (15 million degrees) earlier this year and is now aiming to reach 100 million degrees.

 

  1. Tokamak Energy has a distinguished Scientific Advisory Board chaired by Lord Hunt of Chesterton, FRS and including Dr Jack Connor, FRS (one of the most influential theoretical plasma physicists in fusion), Professor George Smith, FRS (emeritus professor of materials at the University of Oxford), Professor Bill Lee, FREng (previously Director, Centre for Nuclear Engineering at Imperial College and Deputy Chair of the Government advisory Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) and Professor Colin Windsor, FRS (a specialist in neutron scattering and neural networks, ex UKAEA).

 

  1. Tokamak Energy consultants and staff published a paper in Nuclear Fusion in 2015 “On the power and size of tokamak fusion pilot plants and reactors” by Costley, Hugill and Buxton, showing that tokamaks do not have to be huge to produce power and that low-power, high-gain compact tokamaks are feasible.  This paper has become the most downloaded ever from the journal’s web site.

 

  1. Members of the Tokamak Energy Scientific Advisory Board were prominent in organising a Royal Society meeting in March 2018 entitled “Fusion energy from Tokamaks, can development be accelerated?”. 

 

  1. Acceleration is possible now because of: better scientific understanding of the efficiency of tokamaks; the availability of new, reliable, high temperature superconductors suitable for high field magnets; and a range of other new technologies including AI and 3-D printing of complex materials that can speed up both R&D and deployment.
     
  2. We are pleased to present evidence in response to the 5 main headings in the terms of reference.  Our evidence is is primarily relevant to ‘Accelerating the Shift to Low Carbon Transport’ and ‘Delivering Clean, Smart, Flexible Power’

 

The Strategy

 

  1. ‘Delivering Clean, Smart, Flexible Power’ is the key element of the strategy.  Overall demand for energy in the UK is unlikely to reduce much, if at all, so it is crucial that we develop new technologies such as fusion that can deliver clean power at large scale.  Some of these new technologies can then be used to decarbonise transport as well as for industrial and domestic heating. 

 

  1. Fusion has particular promise as a source of industrial heat that could also be used to produce carbon neutral fuel for transport and for domestic heating.

 

  1. If UK companies such as Tokamak Energy can indeed develop and deploy new technologies to deliver clean power at large scale then the whole world can benefit from reduced carbon emissions, while the UK can capture many of the economic benefits through high value supply chains.

 

  1. We note that the Government’s ‘Clean Growth Strategy’ published in October 2017, envisaged a wide range of technologies being developed with the hope of contributing to emissions reductions including – but not limited to – small modular reactors, nuclear fusion, hydrogen and fuel cells, smart grids, negative emissions technologies and innovative construction materials or methods.

 

  1. Fusion is by far the most desirable of these new technologies as it is a long-term solution to our energy needs and can be deployed rapidly at scale without needing huge tracts of land.  The limiting factor is how quickly fusion can be developed to breakthrough as a credible source of energy.

 

  1. We agree with the House of Commons Committee on Climate Change conclusion that in some areas the “policy to deliver [on the reductions targets] has not yet been worked up”, particularly in respect of the huge challenge of deep decarbonisation that will be vital in the 2030s; and that the Strategy is “generally focused at early-stage innovation …[which] “must be supported by funding and policies to drive deployment and learning-by-doing”.

 

  1. It is too early for the Government to start relying on the contribution of fusion energy to future reductions in carbon emission.  However, it is certainly not too early for the Government to do much more to encourage technological and commercial development of fusion alongside its support of fusion science.

 

Support for the development and deployment of technology

 

  1. The Government should particularly consider the following criteria when deciding on support for development and deployment of new energy technologies:

 

  1. The government already has a good range of measures to support the development of technology by private industry, including R&D tax credits; Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and various grant schemes.  These do serve to increase private investment and can be efficiently administered. However, they fall short of what is necessary for optimum development of clean growth and to reduce emissions.

 

  1. The Government should improve the rate of R&D tax credits for energy technology and increase the lifetime, annual and personal limits for EIS investment for energy technology.  The company and personal limits on Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) should also be increased for energy technology businesses.  Such improvements could be restricted to the most R&D intensive businesses, eg those spending more than 50% of turnover on R&D, if the cost of the measure was resisted by the Treasury.

 

  1. If the Government adopts the criteria we suggest: potential impact on carbon reduction in the 2030s; leveraging private investment; building on existing UK strengths; and potential economic impact in the UK, then the result will be to have the flexibility to support specific technologies based on objective criteria which are ‘technology neutral’.

 

Relative priority attached to developing new technologies compared to deploying existing technologies

 

  1. Over the last ten years the Government has focussed on subsidising deployment of existing technologies, rather than developing new technologies.  The balance must change in future to meet the goal of Clean Growth (positive impact on both carbon emission and the UK economy). 

 

  1. This will help to change the balance of private investment from subsidised investment in mature technologies to longer term (patient capital) private investment in new technologies that can have global impact on carbon emission and long term beneficial economic impact in the UK.

 

Examples of specific technologies

 

  1. Fusion is the unique example of a new clean energy technology, based on world-leading expertise in the UK, that could have a major impact on carbon emissions by the 2030s and be an important source of clean energy for centuries to come.

 

  1. The UK Government has given strong backing to fusion energy research, particularly at Culham Laboratory, for decades with the result that Culham is still the world leading centre for fusion energy research.  It is home to JET, the world’s leading tokamak which produced 16MW of controlled fusion power in 1997.  It is also the place where spherical tokamaks were pioneered in the 1990s and home to MAST, the impressive and exciting mega-amp spherical tokamak.

 

  1. Progress in fusion in publicly funded laboratories around the world has been slow over the last 20 years, but there has been an upsurge in private investment in fusion over the last few years, particularly in the US, Canada and the UK.  There is now a dramatic change in US fusion policy to encourage public-private partnerships to develop fusion technology and future fusion power plants.  The UK should not be left behind.

 

  1. Tokamak Energy is combining spherical tokamaks and high temperature superconducting magnets to enable rapid development of fusion energy.  The company is thus building on established clusters of expertise:  in fusion and specifically spherical tokamaks; and in superconducting magnets.

 

  1. As Tokamak Energy continues to develop its technology it will have an increasing effect on the economy through direct and indirect employment and through supply chains.

 

Industrial Strategy ‘Clean Growth Grand Challenge’

 

  1. The main focus of the Clean Growth Grand Challenge seems to be to halve the energy use of new buildings by 2030.  This may be a worthy goal, but it should not be the limit of our ambitions for clean growth in the UK.  There should also be Challenge Funds aimed at developing and delivering low carbon power.

 

Conclusion

 

  1. Our conclusion is that the UK Government should strengthen its investment in magnetic fusion, building on its world leading position with the JET and MAST tokamaks and seeking to attract private funding and much stronger industrial engagement.

 

  1. At the same time the Government should make improvements to R&D tax credits and the EIS and EMI schemes to encourage more private investment in fusion energy development.

 

  1. The Government should note the policy changes in the US that encourage public-private partnerships to develop fusion technology and future fusion power plants.  A bilateral agreement with the US could enable UK research laboratories and private companies to participate in such public-private partnerships.

 

  1. The balance of risk and reward in fusion energy is changing quickly.  The reward is getting closer in time and larger in magnitude, especially in view of the deep decarbonisation necessary in the 2030s.  Meanwhile the risk is reducing as technologies such as high temperature superconducting magnets are developed, enabling more compact systems and better strategies for rapid innovation.  The risk for the UK of not pursuing fusion energy and of missing the opportunity is increasing.
  2. There is an important and immediate opportunity to turn the UK’s scientific and intellectual lead in fusion into a technological and commercial lead.  Tokamak Energy aims to play its part in turning this vision into reality.  The Government can play its part by developing the Culham Science Centre as a centre for enabling technologies for fusion energy and by backing private ventures in fusion in proportion to the milestones they achieve and the private investment they are able to secure.

 

  1. The alternative is to ignore the future commercial importance of fusion and see yet another example of the UK lead in a crucial area of science and technology being frittered away just at the point where further investment is necessary to secure a huge commercial opportunity.

 

 

Julian Hunt (Lord Hunt of Chesterton, FRS)

Chairman, Scientific & Environmental Advisory Board, Tokamak Energy Ltd

 

David Kingham

Executive Vice-Chairman and co-Founder, Tokamak Energy Ltd

 

 

October 2018