Steve Cowley on Nuclear Fusion

The Life Scientific

BBC

Society & Culture, Personal Journals, Science

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 10 October 2017

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Steve Cowley has said that "fusion is arguably the perfect way to power the world". But he's had to add that "it is hard to make fusion work. Indeed, after more than 60 years of fusion research, no device has yet made more energy than it consumes".

But Steve Cowley isn't giving up. He's spent over 30 years working towards making nuclear fusion a viable way of generating energy. Steve Cowley has done theoretical research on how to contain the incredibly hot material you need to get fusion going. As the Director of the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy he guided the British contribution to research. And he has led the UK's participation in ITER, an international experimental reactor being built in France that is planned to be the next step towards making nuclear fusion commercially viable.

Jim al-Khalili discusses with Steve Cowley, now President of Corpus Christi College in Oxford, why nuclear fusion, which has such promise as a clean form of energy with no dangerous waste, has proved so hard to achieve.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, it's Doleepa, and I'm at your service.
0:04.7	Join me as I serve up personal conversations with my sensational guests.
0:08.8	Do a leap interviews, Tim Cook.
0:11.2	Technology doesn't want to be good or bad.
0:15.0	It's in the hands of the creator.
0:16.7	It's not every day that I have the CEO of the world's biggest company in my living room.
0:20.7	If you're looking at your phone more than you're looking in someone's eyes, you're doing the wrong
0:25.3	thing.
0:26.3	Julie, at your service.
0:27.3	Listen to all episodes on BBC sales.
0:31.6	This is the BBC. Hello and welcome to the BBC.
0:33.0	Hello and welcome to the podcast of the Life Scientific.
0:37.0	First broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
0:40.0	I'm Jimal Kiele and my mission is to interview the most fascinating and important scientists alive today
0:46.8	and to find out what makes them tick.
0:50.6	My guest today has said that fusion is arguably the perfect way to power the world.
0:56.0	But he's had to add that it's hard to make fusion work.
1:00.0	Indeed, after more than 60 years of fusion research, no device has yet made more energy
1:05.5	than it consumes.
1:07.6	But Steve Cowley isn't giving up.
1:09.9	He spent over 30 years working towards making nuclear fusion a viable way of generating energy.
1:15.7	He's carried out theoretical research into how to contain the incredibly hot material you need
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.