One Small STEP…

摘要

BACKGROUND The urgent need to respond to global climate change requires a dramatic reduction in carbon emissions. A key element in the strategy must be to reduce the reliance of the world's power stations on fossil fuels. There is a range of sustainable options that, when combined with greater efficiency in our use of energy, is well-placed to meet the need in coming decades - wind, solar, tidal, hydro, nuclear fission etc. However, huge growth in the output of power stations is predicted over the next 20-30 years, driven by the needs of emerging economies and the switch to electric vehicles, for example. These traditional sustainable energy options are then unlikely to be sufficient to meet global demand as we progress into the second half of this century, especially in areas of high population density. Thus there are two urgent needs: (1) to continue to expand traditional sustainable energy options to reduce carbon emissions to 2050, and (2) develop technologies that ensure we keep carbon emissions down into the second half of this century as the world becomes ever more power hungry. Fusion is one of very few options that can meet global energy needs beyond 2050. However, to deliver sufficient capacity on this timescale will require a strong drive now to address the remaining technological challenges and grow the supply chain to ensure fusion energy becomes a commercially viable prospect. This is the vision of the STEP programme, with £222M recently announced by the UK Government to deliver the first five-year phase of this ambitious programme.