In an unassuming industrial park 30 miles outside Boston, engineers are building a futuristic machine to replicate the energy of the stars. If all goes to plan, it could be the key to producing virtually unlimited, clean electricity in the United States in about a decade.
The donut-shaped machine Commonwealth Fusion Systems is assembling to generate this energy is simultaneously the hottest and coldest place in the entire solar system, according to the scientists who are building it.
It is inside that extreme environment in the so-called tokamak that they smash atoms together in 100-million-degree plasma. The nuclear fusion reaction is surrounded by a magnetic field more than 400,000 times more powerful than the Earth's and chilled with cryogenic gases close to absolute zero.
The fusion reaction — forcing two atoms to merge — is what creates the energy of the sun. It is the exact opposite of what the world knows now as "nuclear power" — a fission reaction that splits atoms.
Nuclear fusion has far greater energy potential, with none of the safety concerns around radioactive waste.
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📸 : Sophie Park for CNN
The UK’s sustainable construction sector is shifting from policy ambition to tangible decarbonisation, with major infrastructure and industrial players adopting measurable strategies to reduce whole life carbon across assets. The progress of Sizewell C’s nuclear power project, reaching financial close, highlights the integration of low carbon design within national energy infrastructure and reinforces the role of net zero whole life carbon objectives within long‑term energy security. The inclusion of nuclear energy within the UK’s net zero carbon strategy underlines a move toward environmental sustainability in construction that balances embodied carbon performance with broader lifecycle assessment principles.
The Environmental Services Association’s new guidance connecting Energy‑from‑Waste facilities to urban heat networks signals a critical evolution in circular economy thinking. By recasting waste as a resource for district heating, the approach channels circular economy in construction strategies and manages the carbon footprint of construction through controlled use of residual energy. This shift illustrates how sustainable building design can incorporate end‑of‑life reuse in construction and enhance resource efficiency without compromising low carbon building integrity.
Sunbelt Rentals’ full electrification of its Milton Keynes depot represents the operational embodiment of whole life carbon assessment within industrial infrastructure. Electrified depots limit Scope 1 and 2 emissions, advance eco‑friendly construction practices, and demonstrate how sustainable building practices apply to the equipment supply chain. These advances support lifecycle assessment integration and foster demonstrable reductions in embodied carbon in materials and operational energy use—critical metrics for achieving BREEAM V7 and high‑level environmental product declarations (EPDs).
Investor calls for policy stability before the budget underscore the market’s readiness for sustained investment in green construction. Financial alignment around low embodied carbon materials, circular construction strategies, and carbon neutral construction signals a decisive shift toward scalable solutions addressing the environmental impact of construction. The sector’s increasing emphasis on life cycle cost, sustainable material specification, and building lifecycle performance demonstrates that 2024 marks a phase of deployment rather than demonstration for sustainable construction and sustainable urban development, advancing the goal of truly net zero carbon buildings.
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