The search for a new source of atomic energy at a laboratory in Oxfordshire has received a massive boost from the Government.

A grant of £48m to fund the UK fusion research project at UKAEA Culham, near Abingdon, for the next four years has been awarded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Culham is one of the world's leading centres for fusion research, where scientists and engineers reproduce conditions in the sun and stars in a bid to create a new source of energy that is safe and harmless to the environment.

Professor Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith, the director of UKAEA Culham, said: "This major grant is a measure of the Government's commitment to fusion research.

"It is essential that we have a wide range of energy options to meet the needs of our 21st century world with less reliance on fossil fuels. Fusion has a key role to play alongside renewable sources of energy. The Government and EPSRC have recognised this and the grant is a great vote of confidence in the UK's own contribution to establishing fusion power."

The European fusion programme's Joint European Torus project, known as JET, operates at Culham.

A decision is expected shortly on where to site its successor, the internationally funded project ITER.

The two sites under consideration for the project are Cadarache in the South of France -- the European Union's choice -- and Rokkasho in Japan.