UK's fusion hopes

A proposed £500 million project to create nuclear fusion, the so-called "Holy Grail" of clean energy, will give a huge boost to British research if it is, as expected, located in this country, experts said this week. Mike Dunne, of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, heads the Hiper (high energy laser fusion research) project, which has won endorsement from European Commission peer reviewers, and hopes that his work will lead to a seven-year, UK-based £500 million programme to construct an experimental reactor in an attempt to make fusion a commercial reality. He told The Times Higher that a number of institutions, including Queen's University, Imperial College London, Strathclyde University and York University, were already beginning to teach courses in the relevant area of physics in anticipation of the project being located in the UK.