Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Why the UK may hold the secret to providing the world with limitless energy

Experts in Oxford believe they can win the race to produce cheap clean power despite the many challenges, says Ellie Zolfagharifard




The deniers say they are pro-capitalism, but they are not very entrepreneurial as they hate any new forms of energy over the old fossil fuels. I tell them that they are Luddites who stop capitalism from working properly, i.e, creative destruction, and that they support crony capitalism and rent seaking. If this new technology works, it will make some people very rich.


Nick Hawker is standing inches away from a gun that can fire bullets at 33,500mph. “Let’s just say, it wouldn’t end well if somebody got hit,” he laughs. This is the fastest railgun in Europe; a 40ft (12 metre) pulsed-power machine capable of discharging up to 200,000 volts – the equivalent of 500 simultaneous lightning strikes.

The device is in the secretive laboratory of First Light Fusion, in a bucolic corner of Oxfordshire. This place, claims the 34-year-old scientist, is one of the best hopes the planet has of creating limitless clean energy through nuclear fusion.

The Telegraph

Why the UK may hold the secret to providing the world with limitless energy

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