Deal is a big STEP into future

EDUCATION PROVIDERS AGREE TO BEGIN TRAINING STAFF FOR PIONEER ENERGY PLANT

- By OLIVER PRIDMORE

AROUND 6,500 people are preparing for work at the “global centre” for a new form of energy production coming to Nottinghamshire in 15 years’ time.

Leaders have pledged that the county will be the priority zone for recruitment for the thousands of jobs expected in and around the pioneering plant at the former West Burton A Power Station, near Retford.

An agreement has now been signed between the leaders of the project and the East Midlands mayoral authority. The deal means that education providers, including Vision West Notts College and Nottingham Trent University, will be heavily involved in training the generation who will staff the West Burton plant when it opens in 2040.

The Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) plant will use magnetic confinement fusion, in which two forms of hydrogen are heated to extreme temperatures and fused to create helium and release energy.

The Government says the energy created is “many million times” more efficient than burning coal, oil or gas and that the materials needed are readily available in nature.

The STEP Fusion plant is set to be completed by 2040 and the full demolition of the former power station, including its cooling towers, is set to finish in early 2028.

Leaders say the agreement signed on Monday on skills will help to build a workforce ready to operate the STEP plant.