Sep 17, 2026 · 30 min · 14 segments
Nuclear fusion energy, the idea of copying the sun’s heat source on earth to make limitless commercial energy is famously always 30 years away. This month, the UK and US have agreed to combine the…
Tom WhippleHost
Lizzie GibneyGuest
Steve RamirezGuest
Deborah CohenGuest
It concerns nuclear fusion and plans to bring together some of the computing and data on both sides of the Atlantic.
Lizzie, uh, nuclear fusion, bit of a long-term goal, would be quite an energy panacea if we get it.
It's one of those things where we know it works because it happens in the sun, right? So we have hydrogen atoms, and they fuse to make helium, and we get energy out of it.
Um, doing that on Earth is actually very, very difficult, but there are a huge number of companies and governments who are trying to make it happen right now.
So t-the reason we want to do this on Earth is because the sun manages to have a pretty low carbon footprint and make lots and lots of energy.
You need to get these hydrogen, uh, nuclei to actually, you know, hit each other with enough energy to be able to fuse.
Uh, and there are two different ways that they're trying to do it on Earth at the moment.
One is you kind of zap these fuel pellets, um, with a laser, and they have a k- a shockwave, and you get fusion there.
Or you superheat the fuels to make a plasma, and that's where, um, the nuclei kind of separate from their electrons, and you have this very, very hot gas, and you confine it with magnets, and you can kind of control that and get fusion to happen in the middle of that melee.
Um, so, so controlling this plasma and understanding it is a, a huge problem, and that's where the announcement this week comes out.
Now, Tim Bestwick is the UK Atomic Energy Authorities Interim Chief Executive Officer.
It concerns nuclear fusion and plans to bring together some of the computing and data on both sides of the Atlantic.
Lizzie, uh, nuclear fusion, bit of a long-term goal, would be quite an energy panacea if we get it.
It's one of those things where we know it works because it happens in the sun, right? So we have hydrogen atoms, and they fuse to make helium, and we get energy out of it.
Um, doing that on Earth is actually very, very difficult, but there are a huge number of companies and governments who are trying to make it happen right now.
So t-the reason we want to do this on Earth is because the sun manages to have a pretty low carbon footprint and make lots and lots of energy.
You need to get these hydrogen, uh, nuclei to actually, you know, hit each other with enough energy to be able to fuse.
Uh, and there are two different ways that they're trying to do it on Earth at the moment.
One is you kind of zap these fuel pellets, um, with a laser, and they have a k- a shockwave, and you get fusion there.
Or you superheat the fuels to make a plasma, and that's where, um, the nuclei kind of separate from their electrons, and you have this very, very hot gas, and you confine it with magnets, and you can kind of control that and get fusion to happen in the middle of that melee.
Um, so, so controlling this plasma and understanding it is a, a huge problem, and that's where the announcement this week comes out.
Now, Tim Bestwick is the UK Atomic Energy Authorities Interim Chief Executive Officer.
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