WCSIM – SIMposium 3 April 2023 – Economically Competitive Fusion Energy

The Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers hold an annual ‘SIMposium’ and the 2023 event concentrates on the financial and technical challenges of producing economically competitive fusion energy. It matches well the Lord Mayor’s theme of “Financing the Future“, which was promulgated by the Rt Hon Lord Mayor, Alderman Nicholas Lyons, in his Address to the Livery.

Starting in 2006, the Master of the Scientific Instrument Makers has organised an annual SIMposium to focus on an important scientific topic of their choice, with the added proviso that younger researchers in the fields of interest to the Company should, ideally, be given a chance to demonstrate their contributions. Normally this is an internal event with under 30’s invited for free and older members paying a small fee to cover the cost of refreshments.

This year’s event is being opened up to a wider audience in the Livery and to those in the industry. It will be held in the SIM Hall otherwise known as Glaziers’ Hall.

Booking opened on 31 January 2023 and will close on

Prospectus

Power from nuclear fusion has begun to attract the attention of investors across the world. While all nuclear-generated electricity to date has been based on fission or the “splitting of the atom”, there is now considerable and revived interest in an alternative way of generating nuclear-based electricity, from nuclear fusion, which involves, put simply, squashing atoms together.

The aim of a fusion reactor is to generate extreme conditions like those found at the centre of the Sun, which will cause hydrogen atoms continually to combine to make helium, and release huge amounts of energy in the process, with little radioactive waste. While there has been progress in moving towards this goal, continuous energy production has still not been achieved, in spite of the significant research funding provided by many countries.

But new fusion enterprises are beginning to spring up, and they are attracting billions of pounds in private investment. Does this intriguing new phenomenon mean that we are closer than was commonly thought to generating economically competitive fusion energy? The SIMposium has been organised in order to test this proposition, and to showcase the research and financial strategies being employed to overcome the scientific and engineering obstacles that lie along the path towards commercial viability.

This event is open to anyone in the Livery with an interest and can be booked via the eventbright link.