‘Until 2018, nothing happens,’ comments Donné. Tony Donné, EUROfusion’s programme manager, is quick to assuage any immediate concerns, but can make no guarantees for the future. ‘It plays a unique role in the world programme.’ Cowley admits, however, that the CCFE is in limbo until negotiations start and is adamant that the UK’s position is established before the government activates Article 50, the protocol for exiting the EU. ‘We expect Jet to go on almost until Iter because it’s the only machine in the world that can actually do fusion and can run with tritium,’ he says.

]But it is vital Jet operates past 2018, according to Cowley. Following a joint agreement with the European commission, the CCFE will operate Jet until 2018. EUROfusion will receive €420 million (£359 million) from this fund between 20 – a large portion of which will support Jet’s successor, Iter, set to come online in 2025. Set up in 2014, EUROfusion is jointly run by 26 EU member states along with Switzerland, and is funded through the European Atomic Energy Community, Euratom.Īlthough it does not fall under EU control, Euratom nonetheless funds nuclear research through Horizon 2020 funding. The European Consortium for the Development of Fusion Energy (EUROfusion) fund Jet’s experiments. The CCFE is at the centre of fusion research and is working with 40 teams across Europe to run the world’s only operational fusion device, the Joint European Torus (Jet). ‘We are very vulnerable at this point, mostly we’re vulnerable from the uncertainty,’ says Steven Cowley, head of the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) in the UK. Scientists are now seeking assurances that the vote will not affect the UK’s position over the long term. The UK’s future in pan-European scientific projects may be in doubt following the country’s vote to leave the EU.

Eu funding of the large hadron collider