The former chief of executive of Rolls-Royce has joined the board of a British fusion energy start-up, arguing that the UK has both the science and manufacturing pedigree to be a global centre for the nascent clean power technology.
Warren East, who left Rolls-Royce in December and previously ran the UK’s revered chip designer Arm, told the Financial Times that Oxford-based Tokamak Energy was in a “unique position” to deliver fusion’s overdue promise of abundant zero carbon power and help establish the UK as an industry leader.
“I’ve joined them because I think we have the potential to make Tokamak Energy the Arm of nuclear fusion,” he said in a reference to the company he helped to build into one of the world’s most important microchip designers between 2001 and 2013.
The non-executive director position is the first board role East has accepted since leaving Rolls-Royce.
Fusion is the process of combing two light atomic nuclei to form a single heavier nucleus and producing energy in the process in the form of neutrons. While scientists have struggled for decades to control the reaction in such a way to generate sustained energy and therefore electricity, several recent breakthroughs have raised hope that the technology will work.
Fusion’s sceptics argue that commercial fusion power will forever be 20 years away and that clean energy funding is better directed towards more proven technologies.
But the promise remains tantalising. Fusion power would produce no greenhouse gases or long-lived radioactive waste, the chemical inputs are abundant and a small glass of the fuel could theoretically power a house for hundreds of years.
East, who was first introduced to the fusion industry while running Rolls-Royce from 2015-2022, said he was now convinced that Tokamak Energy, and potentially other fusion start-ups, would achieve the goal of connecting power to the grid in the 2030s.
“It’s been a long time coming but we’re much closer to reality now,” he said. “There’s work to be done, but it is engineering work rather than science experiments.”
Tokamak Energy, which was founded in 2009, has raised $200mn from private investors to date and a further $50mn from the UK and US governments.
East’s appointment follows the selection in February of another former Rolls-Royce executive, Warrick Matthews, as managing director. Both men are expected to help the company build the supply chains and relationships needed to commercialise fusion power.
“Rolls-Royce is an example of a supply chain that is very UK-centric and I don’t see why we can’t do the same again in the realm of nuclear fusion,” East said.
The UK engineering champion, which has experience in materials science and fission reactors, could even supply Tokamak Energy in the future, he added. Combining Rolls-Royce’s engineering, manufacturing and regulatory expertise with Tokamak Energy’s intellectual property and design capability would be “a good UK solution”, he said.
Britain has been at the forefront of fusion research ever since the UK Atomic Energy Authority established a world-leading fusion laboratory at Culham in Oxfordshire in 1965. Now several fusion start-ups, including Tokamak Energy, are located close-by.
With continued political support, the UK has the potential to build a thriving new industry, East said.
“In Britain the government has been very supportive to Rolls-Royce and very supportive to the aerospace industry as a whole, which is why the UK sector punches way above its weight on the global stage,” he added.
Securing private money for fusion technology remained challenging, East said. “What the government is able to do is invest over a much longer-term horizon than private venture capital and the reward comes not in the form of profit but in energy security and jobs.”
