Bezos Expeditions, an investment firm owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft-backed energy company General Fusion, and the UK Atomic Energy Corporation UKAEA have announced plans to jointly build and operate a nuclear fusion plant. . British Science Minister Amanda Soloway said the General Fusion plant would be of great help to the plan aimed at developing the UK’s nuclear fusion industry, saying that fusion energy has great potential as an infinite low-carbon energy source.
General Fusion, headquartered in British Columbia, Canada, is a place that develops fusion power plants based on MTF (Magnetized Target Fusion) technology. The company has received $300 million in investments, including $127 million from Bezos Expedition and Microsoft, and is attracting attention as a clean energy startup.
General Fusion fusion technology first uses a synchronous piston to compress a liquid metal chamber and inject a hydrogen plasma into it. It is a structure that heats this plasma to 150 million degrees, which is 10 times the solar core, and generates electricity from this heat. According to the company, only 1 kg of fusion fuel can supply electricity to 10,000 households a year, and the power generation is equivalent to 55,000 barrels of oil, 6 million kg of natural gas, and 10 million kg of coal.
General Fusion has also reached an agreement with the UKAEA to build a demonstration nuclear fusion power plant. The plant will be built on the site of the UKAEA-owned thermonuclear energy center, with construction scheduled to start in 2022 and full operation in 2025. After operation, the operation is carried out in the form of a long-term lease.
The purpose of this construction was to verify the cost-effectiveness and practicality of the nuclear fusion state formed in the 70% size demonstration plant of a commercial nuclear reactor, and to improve economic efficiency. The construction agreement is part of the Green Industrial Revolution Project (10-Point Plan) announced in November 2020 by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Of the total budget of £12 billion for the project, £232.5 million will be paid for the construction of the demonstration plant, but the UK government does not disclose the full details. Related information can be found here.