Energy Seminar – Week 7: The roles of nuclear fission and fusion in the future UK energy system
Fusion has somehow leapt from being a distant concern of horizon-scanning academics and national lab researchers to being a trendy new start-up technology. Fission advocates have a new plan that is factory built and hopefully cheaper than the vast 2-reactor power plant under construction near Bristol. Fusion research and development has seen a culture shift that is both profound and potentially infectious. What will these innovations offer the mid twenty-first century energy system? Professor Nuttall will discuss such issues in this seminar. In 1996, Tony Blair said that Nuclear Power was ‘back on the agenda with a vengeance’ and 27 years on, we can say it again. Today it is game-on again, spurred by the return of energy insecurity, great power competition and ongoing climate change fears. In the mid-2020s we are facing a second edition of the Nuclear Renaissance, the first edition arguably having fizzled out amidst the diverse crises of Lehman Brothers and Fukushima-Daiichi.
Date: 21 November 2023, 17:00
Venue: Dyson Perrins Building, off South Parks Road OX1 3QY
Venue Details: Place Suite, School of Geography
Speaker: Bill Nuttall (The Open University)
Organising department: Environmental Change Institute
Organisers: Karen Parry (Coordinator, Oxford Energy Network), Robin Morris (Oxford Energy Convenor)
Organiser contact email address: info@energy.ox.ac.uk
Host: Robin Morris (Oxford Energy Convenor)
Part of: Oxford Energy Seminars 2023-24
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/996095ae-f733-4399-b6d9-4858c9d11041@cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91
Audience: Public
Editor: Karen Parry