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Five bids to build nuclear fusion power plant

Getty Images Man pointing across a room full of computers at a large screen which is showing images from the inside of fusion reactor.Getty Images
There is a global race to make fusion power commercially viable

A shortlist of five bids to build a fusion power plant in Nottinghamshire has been announced by the government.

The prototype is due to be built on the site of the former West Burton coal-fired power plant near Retford, which is being demolished.

The government announced in last year's Budget it would invest in the sector, which potentially offers huge quantities of low carbon energy, and said funding would total £410m in the coming year.

The construction and engineering contracts, likely to be worth "hundreds of millions", will be announced in late 2025/early 2026 with the aim of opening the plant by 2040.

The government says fusion already supports about 2,400 jobs in the UK, with the potential for "thousands more" as the sector expands.

It describes the project as a "significant catalyst for growth and regeneration".

West Burton Power station - four cooling towers seen from ground level, against a blue sky
West Burton has moved from coal power to being the site for fusion energy

Actually building a commercial fusion plant, known as STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production), is the responsibility of UK Industrial Fusion Solutions (UKIFS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) Group.

Prof Sir Ian Chapman, UKAEA's chief executive, said: "I am delighted by the strong support from government to delivering fusion as a safe, sustainable energy of the future, and to anchor this exciting new industry in the UK."

The funding will also go towards plans for the UK's first AI Growth Zone at the UKAEA's fusion energy campus at Culham, Oxfordshire, which aims to use AI to boost fusion research.

While the lure of seemingly limitless, clean energy provided by a process similar to that which powers the sun, is attractive, sizeable challenges remain.

Heating suitable elements up to 100m Celsius, maintaining a stable fusion reaction and getting more energy out than is put in, all mean fusion is not yet a viable commercial process.

The five shortlisted bids are:

  • Inovus Infrastructure, consisting of Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering as the lead member and Vinci Construction, AtkinsRealis, Mott Macdonald and WSP as other members.
  • ILIOS, consisting of Kier Infrastructure and Overseas as the lead member and Bam Nuttal, Nuvia Limited, AECOM Ltd, Turner and Townsend Infrastructure Ltd and Amanda Levete Architects Ltd as other members.
  • Ferrovial Mace JV, consisting of Ferrovial Construction UK Ltd as the lead member and Mace Consult Ltd as the other member.
  • Celestial JV, consisting of Eni UK Limited as the lead member and AtkinsRealis, Jacobs Clean Energy (now Amentum), Westinghouse and Tokamak Energy as other members.
  • Phoenix (UK) Fusion Limited, consisting of Cavendish Nuclear Ltd as the lead member, KBR Ltd and Assystem Energy and Infrastructure Ltd as other members.

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