Nottinghamshire's West Burton A power station has won the race to become the UK's first nuclear fusion site. The former coal-fired station, near Retford, was chosen as the site for the multi-billion-pound project, Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg announced on Monday, October 3.
Its selection has been hailed as "game-changing" by Nottinghamshire County Council leader Ben Bradley, who said the multi-billion-pound project would give the county the opportunity to lead the world. The reactor, known as the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP), would not be operational until around 2040, with construction work on the prototype expected to start in the early 2030s.
The project is tipped to generate 10,000 jobs. Nuclear fusion, which is currently only carried out in experiments, is a potential source of near-limitless clean energy. It is believed the West Burton A site, owned by EDF energy, will become one of the world's first power stations to harness its energy.
