Two years ago today, STEP Fusion took another significant step forward. A special edition of the The Royal Society journal Philosophical Transactions A, the world’s first and longest-running scientific journal, brought together the scientific and engineering work behind our programme.
After five years and more than 1,000 person-years of detailed design work, having that work published in the journal was a major milestone, putting the emerging design of STEP Fusion into the public domain and sharing the thinking behind one of the world’s most ambitious fusion programmes.
Across 16 articles, the issue explores the design of the STEP tokamak and the many challenges of turning that design into a working power plant, from plasma scenarios and control, high-temperature superconducting magnets and robotic maintenance, to materials, tritium self-sufficiency, power generation, safety, digital engineering, cost and programme delivery.
Two years on, that work continues to shape the programme as we move from design towards delivery at West Burton.
And the ambition remains bigger than the prototype itself: building the technologies, intellectual property, skills, supply chains and industrial capability needed for a future fusion industry.
Read the special issue: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsta/issue/382/2280
Watch our live event, held shortly after the publication in 2024: Marking the publication of the Royal Society journal – Live Event
