UK fusion reactor dream gets another £2.5 billion from gov't (www.theregister.com)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by HumanPenguin@feddit.uk to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk

17 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Not entirely sure how much the register thinks it costs.

To design the first ever commercial man made star. But 220 m for such new science. Designed by researchers and specialists in a brand new field. Seems pretty bloody cheap to me.

As for building it being a pipe dream. We are far more prepared for it then we were the first fission power plants. Without some risk progress stops.

Will it cost more. Of course. But it is also the future of energy independence. And based on the first successful smaller design. So far from a pipe dream.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] nightwatch_admin@feddit.nl 1 points 3 days ago

Also, I think the Register’s point was not about feasibility or profitability even, but more that no one at STEP can explain where the money is going at all; it might be research and reactor, but just as well shiny new macbooks as a New Year’s present for everyone and ’is mum.

[-] HumanPenguin@feddit.uk 1 points 2 days ago

STEP is a fusion method not the organisation.

And the money was spent on designing a full scale reactor that uses that method. The register seems to think paying loads of researchers and professers to design the first ever of a new design is free. When in reality it takes huge amounts of computing power and in this case new AI systems to develop the algorithms to magnetically control.

A man made fucking star at 150million c.

Yes such design is expensive. Even when it has been done on a much much smaller scale. How much inflation adjusted do you think the first fission full scale power station cost to design.

The register is being dumb. Not to mention the 2.5b has been approved because the designers achieved exactly what the promised for 220m under budget.

this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2025

15 points (100.0% liked)

United Kingdom

4954 readers

94 users here now

General community for news/discussion in the UK.

Less serious posts should go in !casualuk@feddit.uk or !andfinally@feddit.uk
More serious politics should go in !uk_politics@feddit.uk.

Try not to spam the same link to multiple feddit.uk communities.
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric news, and should be either a link to a reputable source, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread.

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

tom@feddit.uk

GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk

frankPodmore@slrpnk.net