NUCLEAR fusion is the science community’s holy grail. This simple process could help us to generate clean, safe and cheap energy – potentially solving the world’s fuel crisis and preventing further environmental damage. Fusion could be a really big deal; the problem is, no-one is entirely sure how to make it happen.

There’s a big difference between the nuclear plants that we currently use to generate energy and the fusion reactors scientists are working towards. Everyday nuclear facilities exploit a process called ‘fission’, in which uranium atoms are split apart to release energy.

This process provides us with a readily available source of energy, which, unlike fossil fuels, does not emit harmful greenhouse gases. However nuclear power does currently have some significant drawbacks. Uranium is a rare material, and requires much energy to source and refine; it also produces radioactive waste, which can take hundreds of thousands of years to decay.

Fusion could put an end to these problems. This technique creates energy by fusing hydrogen atoms together, rather than by splitting them apart. The same process takes place in the sun, and other stars. Back on Earth, fusion can be triggered using materials that are more readily available than uranium, and it doesn’t produce dangerous radioactive waste.

Fusion was first theorised over 60 years ago, but it’s proved extremely difficult to translate into practice. Part of the problem is that the reaction requires extremely high temperatures and pressures to work. Hydrogen atoms need to be heated to about 100 million degrees and then forced to collide using electromagnets – only then can they ‘fuse’ together. And that process is even more difficult and complex than it sounds.

However, all is not lost. The UK is at the forefront of research into nuclear energy, and Oxfordshire is at the very heart of this work. The Joint European Torus (JET) project is one of the world’s largest centres for fusion research. Located at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, JET is helping experts to explore the processes underpinning nuclear fusion.

Since it began operations in 1983, JET has made some astonishing progress. This unique facility allows scientists to study fusion in conditions similar to those that would be used in a ‘real life’ power plant. Indeed, JET is the only facility in the world that has produced significant fusion energy, and it is at the forefront of European progress in this exciting field.

But JET isn’t the only fusion innovation that our county boasts. Oxfordshire is also home to a variety of private companies, also engaged in the hunt for commercial fusion energy. Several of these companies are working towards developing their own nuclear fusion reactors on a smaller scale than existing models. Earlier this year, one such company announced their intention to generate fusion energy by 2025, followed by the first power plant in 2030.

But just how far off is nuclear fusion? For a long time now, we’ve been hearing that widely-available fusion energy is just a couple of decades away, and yet commercialisation has proved more difficult than anyone ever imagined. We are making progress, although there’s still a way to go before we can expect to see electricity produced by fusion reactors in our homes.

Nuclear fusion is by no means an impossible feat, and when it does eventually come to fruition, Oxfordshire is likely to be at the very centre of the excitement. Fusion may still be a while away, but scientific innovation and ingenuity is happening all around us, every day, and that’s something we can all be proud of.