Companies in Oxfordshire have been briefed on how to win a slice of a £3bn bid to build a prototype nuclear fusion power station.

More than 70 firms from across the UK attended a workshop at the Culham Science Centre, near Abingdon, to discuss the international project, called Iter, which will be built in Canada, France, Spain or Japan.

Oxfordshire companies are in a strong position because they helped to develop systems for Iter's predecessor -- the European-funded Jet project at Culham. Jet, the world's largest fusion experiment, is to be wound down and the UK Atomic Energy Authority has taken over Britain's fusion research.

Fusion, the energy source that powers the sun and stars, involves light elements being fused together to make heavier elements, giving off tremendous amounts of energy.