Tokamak Energy chief Chris Kelsall invites Australian governments, business to collaborate on nuclear fusion

The boss of one of the word’s leading nuclear fusion developers says interest in the technology has reached an inflection point amid increasing concern over climate change and energy security. UK-based Tokamak Energy chief executive Chris Kelsall said the Ukraine war has been an “added catalyst” to growing awareness of the need for energy grids to be more resilient, as European countries scramble for alternatives to Russian gas. He noted pressure was also being felt in Australia through the east coast gas crisis. “Governments, investors and big industrial groups are suddenly looking at the prices in Western Europe and the UK and Australia . . . they’re coming to us and saying, talk us through fusion,” Mr Kelsall, who hails from Perth, told The West Australian. “There is a geostrategic pillar which sits alongside the climate question.” With zero greenhouse gas emissions and promising to provide huge amounts of baseload energy, Mr Kelsall said fusion can be a safe and sustainable part of the green energy transition, complementing wind and solar. It also presents a global investment opportunity, with over $2 billion invested in private fusion over the past year alone. However, fusion has failed to generate the same interest as fission because it is not yet fully proven across the complete delivery chain. But it is advancing rapidly, according to Mr Kelsall. Fusion, a form of nuclear energy, is based on the same principle by which stars create heat and light. The process involves the fusing of two hydrogen atoms under high heat conditions to produce helium and one neutron, which can be harnessed to generate energy. Tokamak Energy demonstrated a world-first in March with its ST40 spherical tokamak, achieving a plasma temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius, the threshold required for commercial fusion energy. It said this was by far the highest temperature ever achieved in a spherical tokamak and by any privately-funded tokamak. Spun out of the UK’s Culham research laboratories in 2009, Tokamak Energy is one of only five private fusion developers to have secured over $150 million in investment. The company has raised over £100 million ($174m) in equity so far from private sources and approximately £25m from government sources, and is planning another funding round later this year. Its aim is to generate abundant, low-cost, clean, safe and secure energy for the planet. Mr Kelsall said Tokamak was targeting a 500MW device that can be placed near population centres. It is aiming to commercialise the technology by the mid to late-2030s and global rollout by the early 2040s. While conceding it would not solve the world’s energy needs today, Mr Kelsall said fusion needed to be included in government policy as another tool in the future of diversified energy grids. “My invitation to Australian governments and to big business is to ask yourselves whether you want a seat at the fusion table, because it requires multilateral collaboration and partnership,” he said. “We can’t solve this overnight but we can provide an end-game solution for the ‘30s, ‘40s and beyond for our children and their children. But we’ve got to start investing and collaborating now.”