Investment in York Plasma Institute will benefit businesses

THE UNIVERSITY of York is to help businesses benefit from its expertise in plasma science and fusion after investment in its York Plasma Institute.

York Plasma Institute (YPI) has developed the Remote Tokamak Control Room, which enables it to conduct experiments remotely on hot, ionised gas, known as a plasma, at centres in other parts of the world, such as the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) - a magnetic field used to confine plasma - based at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, Oxfordshire.

The new control room will enhance the university's research into fusion energy, the process which powers the sun and the recreation of the conditions for fusion, it said. YPI director, professor Howard Wilson, said: "To help us do this, the new facility has videoconferencing capability to link to the actual MAST control room in Oxfordshire, and a suite of data analysis equipment and software."

The university has also appointed Dr Kate Lancaster, plasma and fusion industrial officer, to forge links between the York Plasma Institute and industrial and academic partners to foster collaborative research in plasma science and help industry benefit from a European fusion programme.

The ten billion euro ITER programme, an experimental fusion device under construction in southern France, is a multinational project being built to answer questions on fusion as a source of environmentally-friendly energy before a demonstration fusion power plant is built.

Ann Laverty, Commercial Property lawyer at Denison Till (pictured with York Plasma Insitute Director, Professor Howard Wilson) advised the university on buying The Genesis Building at York Science Park.