THE Prime Minister commended an Oxfordshire nuclear fusion facility in his Conservative party conference speech today.

Boris Johnson referred to the tokamak fusion reactor at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, and praised their efforts to help the country to become a 'global lead' in such technology.

The site is part of Culham Science Centre, near Abingdon, which Mr Johnson visited in August. 

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Addressing his party conference in Manchester today, the PM said: "Thanks to British technology there is a place in Oxfordshire that could soon be the hottest place in the solar system, the tokamak fusion reactor in Culham.

"If you go there you will learn that this country has a global lead in fusion research and that they are on the verge of creating commercially viable miniature fusion reactors for sale around the world delivering virtually unlimited zero-carbon power."

He joked that 'they have been on the verge for some time - it is a pretty spacious kind of verge' but later added: "We can do it, we can beat the sceptics."

The main facility at the centre, the Joint European Torus, is largely funded by the EU.

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Critics highlighted how Mr Johnson failed to mention this link while some scientists threw doubt on his claim about being on the verge of commercial viability, saying that was still decades off.