Our impact

UKAEA’s mission is to lead the delivery of sustainable fusion energy to maximise scientific and UK economic benefit. The UK government’s fusion strategy directs research and development to yield near-term scientific and economic benefits and support the growth of a competitive domestic industry, backed by skills development at all levels, to lay the foundations for deployable fusion energy.

The economic opportunities associated with fusion energy are increasingly clear with the UK well-positioned to capture a share of an estimated potential £3 trillion to £12 trillion total global capital investment in fusion in the period from 2050 to 2100 ^{[Footnote 1]}. Technologies from fusion research and development are benefitting industry in areas including robotics, materials, medicine, and artificial intelligence.

Benefits by 2030

Our strategy is to deliver these benefits for 2030:

increased technology maturity of prototype power plant
advanced science and UK knowledge leadership
reduced technological risk
growth of Fusion sector
creation and exploitation of IP in industry
technical expertise transferred into adjacent sectors
growth of UK-based industrial capability
inward investment
high quality jobs
increased productivity through greater economic clustering
regional growth
higher skilled workforce
greater know-how and knowledge

How we are performing

UK jobs in fusion

Between 2020 and 2025, an average of 6,000 jobs per year were supported in the UK economy by UKAEA activity, 60% of which were in the UK supply chain rather than working directly for UKAEA.

UK skills growth

By 2025, UKAEA’s FOSTER programme supported 31 PhDs, secured partnerships with 2 leading UK universities to expand Masters-level training for fusion energy in the UK, engaged nearly 50,000 school students through outreach activities, and started a new collaboration with the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) at the
Oxfordshire Advanced Skills facility, with 16 apprentices in the first cohort.

UK scientific and research achievements

Between 2022 and 2025, UKAEA increased its scholarly output by 11% compared to 2019 to 2022. UKAEA researcher attendance at conferences nearly doubled over that same time period. 51 PhD students started during from 2024 to 2025 from 19 universities.

UK value generation

Via intellectual property and know-how, UKAEA’s research and innovation is increasingly generating value in the UK economy. Since 2019, UKAEA has submitted 166 invention disclosures and filed 27 patents, including 14 from the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) programme. These cover a wide range of technologies, from remountable superconducting magnets and advanced tritium handling systems to novel robotic platforms and repair methods for next-generation materials. The number of identified economic sectors into which UKAEA’s fusion technologies could be applied doubled between 2021 and 2024.

Commercial and inward investment into UK fusion

UKAEA is increasing commercial and foreign investment into its programmes and activities. UKAEA received £9.5 million of direct commercial investment between 2024 to 2025 and agreed a commercial partnership with Italian multinational energy firm Eni to build the H3AT facility.

UK fusion energy research and development

UKAEA uses different approaches to evaluate realisation of these benefits. Quantitative analysis undertaken by UKAEA and DESNZ suggests that the gross value-added (GVA) impact of UKAEA fusion energy research and development activities between 2009 and and 2025 was £3.4 billion, with UK government spend of £2 billion over the same period.[Footnote 2]

Footnote 1: Internal Department for Energy Security and Net Zero-UKAEA-UKFE analysis of total capital investment (2023 prices) in Fusion Power Plants between 2050 and 2100 based on currently unpublished UCL Energy Institute global TIMES modelling. Total estimated fusion energy installed capacity multiplied by capital cost estimates. These estimates could be considered conservative, as they only capture capital costs and do not account for higher estimates of energy gain in fusion plants and co-production opportunities such as heating and desalination. Given the nascency of the technology, assumptions are highly uncertain.

Footnote 2: GVA and UK government funding in 2024/25 prices, direct and indirect effects only. The amount of GVA for every £1 in UK government funding has reduced compared to the London Economics analysis undertaken in 2020 because between 2009/10 and 2023/24 the amount of UK government funding has increased in relation to external funding, primarily that received from the European Commission to operate the Joint European Torus (which ceased operations in 2023).