Nuclear fusion, the futuristic technology that seeks to harness the reaction that powers the Sun, will be dirty, expensive and may never work.
These are the frank conclusions of a secret policy review by the British government, which reveals that it came close to pulling out of fusion research altogether.
Such official scepticism will surprise many at a time when prospects for fusion seem brighter than for many years. There are signs that the US may be preparing to rejoin a 拢4 billion international project to build an experimental fusion reactor, while Canada, Japan, Spain and France are all bidding to have the reactor sited in their country.
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Officially, Britain is still backing the European research programme into fusion, part of which is based at Culham in Oxfordshire. The energy minister, Brian Wilson, told the House of Commons last November that 鈥渇usion power has the potential to make a real and valuable contribution to meeting energy needs in the medium term.鈥�
But this is only half the truth. The confidential review, leaked to New 杏吧原创, is the government鈥檚 most recent and detailed look at fusion. It reveals serious doubts about whether fusion is worth funding, and that the government has been considering cancelling its 拢38.5 million annual contribution and closing down the Joint European Torus (JET) facility at Culham, operated by the UK Atomic Energy Authority.
鈥淭he safety and environmental advantages of fusion are far from clear-cut,鈥� the review says. 鈥淔usion reactors will still produce large quantities of radioactive waste.鈥� It also calculates that any electricity they generate is likely to be up to 60 per cent more expensive than power from nuclear fission or coal.
After 50 years of research, commercial power from fusion is still decades away, the review points out. 鈥淎 technically viable solution may not ultimately be achievable.鈥�
The 鈥淧olicy Review of Fusion鈥� was carried out behind closed doors by a panel of government experts for the DTI between May 2000 and March 2001, but was never published. Although it concludes that funding for fusion has to continue for now, it does so with evident reluctance. 鈥淭he UK鈥檚 expenditure on fusion should be kept to a minimum consistent with the need to be able to influence the international research effort of which we are an inescapable part.鈥�