Siobhan Baillie has joined other MPs and local leaders in Westminster to lobby the government in a bid to have the UK’s first prototype fusion plant in South Gloucestershire.

Industry leaders are backing the bid for the Western Gateway’s Severn Edge to become the UK’s first, to develop a prototype energy plant to prove the commercial viability of fusion.

The bid is one of the final five sites being considered by government and, if successful, would support more than 30,000 jobs, levelling up communities in England and Wales and creating an extra £3.5 billion of output for the economy.

The Western Gateway partnership, which represents the economic powerhouse for South Wales and Western England, is leading the bid and the ‘#STEPUpForSevern’ campaign to bring fusion to Severn Edge.

Siobhan Baillie, MP for Stroud which includes part of the Severn Edge site, said: “We know that the Severn Edge site is the best possible option for the UK’s STEP Programme, providing access to the necessary expert supply chains that feed into Hinkley C and an operational, purpose-built Skills and Science Park ready to provide the engineering apprentices of tomorrow.

"We have an opportunity to be a world-leading science superpower with fusion and our site will ensure immediate delivery to make this possible.

“Local communities, business and MPs on both sides of the Severn have signed up to show their support to our bid which would provide transformational opportunities for the next generation. Stroud constituency school children would grow up knowing they can work on planet-saving technology.

"Severn Edge is the right home for STEP and we hope that ministers will back our bid.”

The UK Atomic Energy Authority’s (UKAEA) Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production programme (STEP) is the national project to develop a prototype energy plant to prove the commercial viability of fusion. 

Fusion has been described as having the potential to become the “ultimate low carbon energy” source, recreating the reaction that takes place within the sun.

Severn Edge spans two sites in South Gloucestershire and Gloucestershire next to the M4 bridge to Wales. 

More information about the #STEPUpForSevern campaign is available on the

Western Gateway website: www.western-gateway.co.uk/fusion-western-gateway