Video: Mike Dunne on HIPER and the quest for fusion energy
Mike Dunne is Director of the UK Science & Technology Facilities Council Photon Science Department, with staff and facilities at both the Rutherford Appleton and Daresbury Laboratories. He is responsible for the leadership of a coherent science strategy for the exploitation of all types of photon sources -- including lasers, synchrotrons and Free Electron Light sources.
He is the international leader of a project to deliver a European laser fusion facility called HiPER. HiPER is one of the few € Billion scale facility opportunities recently accepted onto the European Roadmap of future Research Infrastructures, as well as onto the UK Large Facilities Roadmap. HiPER's purpose is to establish a clear path to a commercially viable laser fusion power plant, building from the upcoming demonstration of energy gain at the National Ignition Facility in the United States. It will enable a wide range of new fundamental science studies in truly extreme conditions not otherwise achievable on Earth.
Dunne represents the UK on a number of European and International bodies associated with his technical area of expertise -- including bodies within IAEA, Euratom, IUPAP and the EPS. He has received numerous awards and is the author of more than 60 technical papers.