The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) is the United Kingdom's national fusion laboratory, charged with leading research and development to make fusion power a commercial reality. The organisation employs around 2,600 people across sites in Culham, West Burton, Cumbria, and South Yorkshire, working across technical domains including plasma science, robotics, materials testing and development, and tritium science.
UKAEA operates several major fusion research facilities. These include MAST-Upgrade, the world's largest operational spherical tokamak, and the STEP programme, a major initiative designed to demonstrate net energy from fusion. The Joint European Torus (JET), long a centrepiece of fusion research at Culham, is transitioning from operations to decommissioning.
Beyond its core research mission, the authority is focused on building partnerships with industry, developing supply chains, and training the next generation of fusion scientists and engineers. It actively files patents and creates spinout technologies. Between 2020 and 2025, UKAEA's activities are estimated to support an average of 6,000 jobs per year in the UK economy, generating billions in gross value added.
