Scientists have started to build Britain’s largest privately-owned nuclear fusion facility.

The project near Bletchley – home to World War II’s codebreakers – is being developed by Pulsar Fusion, a company spearheaded by nuclear entrepreneur Richard Dinan.

Dinan and his team have shipped in state-of-the-art equipment from around the world to fit out the new ground-breaking 10,000 sq ft facility.

He is confident they will achieve the temperature target within the next three months which means they have created matter hot enough to replicate the temperature of the Sun.

Dinan is pictured inside the vacuum chamber which will form the heart of the reactor and will soon reach temperatures above 100 million degrees Celsius.

Once the facility is fully operational, the nuclear physicists plan to harness the technology to power a host of advanced clean energy innovations.

Dinan is the author of The Fusion Age, a book examining the possibilities of modern nuclear technologies. The former star of TV reality show Made In Chelsea has been working on nuclear fusion for six years and recently lectured at the Oxford University Science Society on private nuclear fusion reactors.

He said the opening of the Bletchley facility “is the culmination of several years work, not only by myself but by a dedicated team of talented clean nuclear visionaries”.

“It’s incredibly exciting to watch our plans and preparations come together. Within three months from now we fully expect to reach first plasma, which in layman’s terms means we will have a device with a core temperature which replicates that of the sun.

“Not only does nuclear fusion have the potential to solve the world’s energy crisis but it will also lead to countless other technological innovations.”

He said fusion had “the ability to do the best thing we will ever do – generate abundant, powerful clean energy. Pulsar Fusion was set up out of a relationship with a lot of nuclear physicists who know the science is there now. Why should something that is possible today wait for tomorrow?”

……………

The latest nuclear technologies will be spotlighted at POWERGEN Europe in Paris in November. Click here for details.