UK advances STEP with £2.5bn fusion funding

STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) will be built in Nottinghamshire on the site of the former West Burton A coal power station near Retford and Gainsborough, which closed in late 2024. The project represents the UK’s homegrown effort to achieve commercial fusion after being cut from the ITER fusion megaproject in France post-Brexit. Alongside the EU, ITER’s members are China, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US. 

Assembly for STEP is expected to begin in the 2030s, with first operations predicted for 2040 and the project ultimately targeting 100MW of net energy production. The prototype plant will be delivered by UK Industrial Fusion Solutions (UKIFS), a wholly owned subsidiary of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). According to UKIFS, delivery of STEP will create around 10,000 jobs over its lifetime across construction and operations.

“The UK is the world leader in fusion energy research today, and STEP is the beacon programme that aims to take fusion from research to commercial success, generating high quality jobs, multiple spin offs and boosting the economy nationally and in the East Midlands where we will build the first plant,” said Paul Methven, CEO of UKIFS.