Stephen Phillips
Nuclear fusion is one of the most exciting technologies in energy production, but it has not proved easy to realise - a state of affairs that is changing. While it is still challenging to get right, there has been progress in recent years - driven by the determination of governments (the UK Atomic Energy Authority in the UK) and commercial startups to unlock its potential.
By dawn’s first light
To bring us up to speed on these developments, the IET is hosting two events in the coming week.
On Tuesday, March 25, 2025, our Nuclear Technical Network will host an online seminar: 'First Light Fusion's amplifier scheme for IFE: an overview of our capabilities and facilities.'
First Light's idea is to fire a metal projectile with a velocity of tens of kilometres per second at a cube. The spherical space within the cube collapses so rapidly that the shockwave moves at hundreds of kilometres per second into the fuel pellet, creating the conditions to produce nuclear fusion.
The speaker and the lead
The speaker will be Tinesimba Zata, BEng MSc MIET, First Light Fusion's Control and Safety Lead. He is looking forward to discussing his work on the company's pulse power machine, the M3 Fusion Driver.
Fusion's Lead Scientist, Cristian Dobranszki, PhD, will be helping out with the Q&A.
The event organiser, long-time IET volunteer, and nuclear fusion consultant, William Davis, says, "Fusion energy research is a growing industry, and it is now an industry - as opposed to a sort of research sector."
"Actually, the UK has got two of the longest-running fusion energy startups with Tokomak Energy and First Light Fusion."
William spent eight years working with the international, multi-decade cooperation (between China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United States) ITER project in the south of France, an attempt to build the world's largest nuclear fusion power plant.
While this is the Nuclear Technical Network's first fusion event this year, it is the very first with First Light Fusion.
The action continues
The week's double bill continues with a seminar at Manchester's Pendulum Hotel on Thursday, March 27, 2025.
The guest speakers will be:
• Professor Lee Margetts, Chair of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UK AEA) and the Chair of Digital Engineering for Fusion Energy. Professor Margetts is also the Director of the Fusion Energy Engineering Centre for Doctoral Training.
• Yannik Dieudonné, Development Engineer at UK AEA. Mr Dieudonné is a physicist specialising in superconducting magnet technology. He works in high-temperature superconductors, inspection and maintenance robotics, and advanced/additive manufacturing, focusing on confinement systems in prototype fusion power plants. Yannik is jointly responsible for the UK AEA's Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) programme.
• Davidson Sabu is a fusion technologist at the UK AEA. He is working on manufacturing contracts for the UK's STEP fusion power plants, scheduled to come online in 2040.
The purpose
As well as organising this seminar, Joseph Daly and Louis Williams are each members of the Manchester Young Professionals Group of the IET, and both work at Sellafield.
They say the broad idea behind this seminar is to look at the current position of nuclear fusion and to shed light on the future of the technology.
In a conversation with the IET, Joseph said, "In the past 5 to 10 years, [fusion] is being taken from a theoretical idea to an actual practical engineering idea."
"We want to talk about where we are, where we've come [from], and the technological advances made up to now. We also wanted to discuss the confinements and constraints we face in developing a scalable fusion reactor. Not just one we can produce in a lab, but one we can scale out worldwide."
To conclude, Joseph and Louis want to discuss the successes in getting fusion this far, but they also want to discuss what lies ahead in scaling up fusion power. "We want to talk about our successes and how far we've come, but we also want to talk about the challenges we face."
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The webinar, 'First light fusion's amplifier scheme for IFE: an overview of our capabilities and facilities,' takes place online on Tuesday, March 25, beginning at noon and continues until 1 pm. It is free of charge, and people interested can register through the IET website.
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The 'Nuclear Fusion Seminar' takes place on Thursday, March 27 2025. It is at the Pendulum Hotel, Manchester, beginning at 5:30 pm and goes on until 8 pm. Tickets are free, and you can register using the IET website.
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What do you think?
What do you think the future holds for nuclear fusion? Will its time never arrive, or are we on the cusp of something significant?