Our history 

In the last decade

An overview of UKAEA’s key achievements in the last decade.

UKAEA: 1940s to 1990s

Some UKAEA milestones from 1940s to 1990s.

1991: JET achieves controlled fusion

JET made headlines around the globe in 1991 when it became the first machine to achieve controlled fusion. It went on to set a world record for power produced from a fusion plasma – 16 megawatts – in 1997. Since then it has continued to refine the tokamak concept, preparing the way for its larger international successor, ITER.

1990s onwards: Leading the development of the spherical tokamak

JET sets 1st world records and the Culham laboratory operates the first full-sized spherical tokamak, START, followed by MAST.

From the 1990s onwards, UKAEA has led the development of the ‘spherical tokamak’. This is a more compact tokamak design with excellent potential for smaller, cheaper fusion devices. Culham built the first large spherical tokamak – START – in 1991. This was followed by the more advanced MAST machine in 2000. We continue to lead the way in spherical tokamak research, with MAST Upgrade.

1973 to 1983: The progress to the Joint European Torus (JET) and its first plasma

The worldwide oil crisis of 1973 prompted governments to step up research into alternative forms of energy, including fusion. That same year, the European Economic Community’s atomic energy agency, Euratom, began an ambitious project to design a large multinational tokamak. Their aim was an experiment that would get close to reactor conditions and show that fusion could produce significant quantities of power. The machine came to be known as JET – the Joint European Torus. Culham was chosen to host JET in 1977 and the ‘first plasma’ was produced on 25 June 1983.

1969: The focus on the tokamak

In 1969, Culham scientists travelled to Moscow to verify the results of the pioneering Russian T3 tokamak device. They confirmed T3’s success in achieving plasma temperatures over 10 million degrees C – far superior to any previous experiment. This indicated that the tokamak offered the best route to fusion power, and from the early 1970s most research at Culham focused on this design.

1965: UKAEA opens Culham Laboratory

The UK Atomic Energy Authority created Culham Laboratory as a purpose-built home for Britain’s fusion research programme. Officially opened in 1965, it was constructed on the site of a former airfield, Royal Naval Air Station Culham. The laboratory soon established a leading reputation for fusion science. By 1983, Culham had built over 30 different experiments – more than one per year – testing a variety of machine concepts.

1940s and 1950s: Fusion research begins in the UK

Researchers start looking at possibilities of replicating the process of fusion on
Earth. The UKAEA starts the ZETA experiment in 1957.

Fusion research in the UK started in earnest in the UK in the later 1940s / 1950s – with work being undertaken at Aldermaston, various universities including Imperial College London and Oxford and the newly formed Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell.  Zero Energy Thermonuclear Assembly (or ZETA) at Harwell was the most prominent experiment in this period.

Historical context

An overview of some key milestones in the history of the research and development of fusion energy.

Watch the history of fusion research and Culham

Learn about the history of fusion energy and the Culham Science Centre in this webinar recording.

Star Makers 2: JET’s quest for fusion energy