The twelfth meeting of the Fusion Industry Taskforce (FIT), held at The University of Manchester, brought together a diverse range of voices from the fusion industry, including PhD students and key representatives from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) to discuss pivotal fusion topics.
The meeting opened with a presentation from the UK’s first student fusion society, The University of Manchester’s MancheSTAR. Their goal is to create an international, student-based working group that will share knowledge and organise events to promote the fusion energy industry.
Sue Ferns, Deputy General Secretary of Prospect Union also presented on the union’s work within the fusion sector and its aims to improve the industry’s attractiveness by promoting opportunities to a wider audience and upskilling employees to engage in the difficult conversations, particularly those surrounding the gender pay gap.
Most notably, Dan Cattell from DESNZ discussed how the Government’s latest ‘Plan for Change’ initiative has committed £410 million of funding to the fusion energy sector, which will be distributed across the industry to develop infrastructure, create employment opportunities, and fund fusion research programmes. This includes investments into STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) and the Fusion Futures programme. These initiatives will play a pivotal role in advancing the sector in the UK.
Regarding policy updates, Laura Callard of Burges Salmon explained that an updated version of the Fusion National Policy Statement is crucial for fusion industry growth. The updated policy will clarify the siting of future fusion projects and outline the UK Government’s intentions for fusion as a clean energy source.
We concluded with an important reminder from Aneeqa Khan of The University of Manchester, who highlighted that investment in fusion technology has been proven to benefit other industries through valuable byproducts and spin-off technologies.
For those organisations wishing to learn more about FIT and its work please contact Chair Dr Michael Zdanowski at: mzdanowski@assystem.com
