Fusion energy has been promised for 60 years, but Steven Cowley, CEO of the UK Nuclear Energy Authority and principle investigator at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy believes that this technology is just around the corner. Cowley oversees the UK's fusion research programme, including the MAST experiment. Culham also hosts the European-wide JET facility, which has recently been upgraded and is now running fusion bursts of 30 seconds 10-12 times a day.

A power plant-scale device (ITER) is due to be built in France in the near future on the basis of these experiments.