Dr Nicholas Hawker, founder/CEO of First Light Fusion
(Picture: First Light Fusion)The government has hailed a potential clean power breakthrough after a University of Oxford spin-out successfully demonstrated a cheap new way to generate nuclear power.
First Light Fusion has successfully demonstrated hot fusion, the process that fuels the sun, using its own proprietary technology that costs between a tenth and a hundredth of existing methods.
The test opens the door to the potential widespread use of nuclear fusion to power homes and is a boost for the government ahead of the publication of its energy security strategy later this week.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: “First Light Fusion’s British-born technology could potentially revolutionise power production in the coming decades.
“That is why this government is investing in UK science and innovation, ensuring that we remain at the forefront of the global scientific endeavour to make safe, clean, limitless fusion energy a reality.”
The Business Department announced plans to commercialise fusion power last autumn and Prime Minister Boris Johnson has twice met with the founder of First Light.
Ian Chapman, head of the UK Atomic Energy Agency, which validated the test results, said: “Fusion promises to be a safe, low carbon and sustainable part of the world’s future energy supply, and we support all advances in this scientific and engineering grand challenge. These results are another important step forward.”
Fusion, as the energy generating process is known, offers the hope of a clean and abundant source of power.
The process has been replicated in the past but First Light claims that its method is cheaper and easier to do. It fires gas at fuel to get it to implode and generate power.
Dr Nick Hawker, co-founder and CEO of First Light Fusion, said: “Our approach to fusion is all about simplicity. We believe projectile fusion is the fastest path to commercially viable power generation from fusion.”
First Light, which was spun out of Oxford’s biomedical engineering department in 2011, has spent just £45 million on development to date. The start-up has enlisted UBS to help it raise cash and hopes to secure hundreds of millions to scale up its technology.
Chairman Bart Markus said the test results offered the company a route to a “sustainable business model.”
First Light is backed by the University of Oxford’s venture fund and FTSE 250-listed IP Group. Shares in IP Group jumped over 4% today to trade near the top of the index.
