Fusion energy is a long-horizon, high-consequence bet. The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) is where that bet is being made operational. Operating from sites across the UK including Culham, West Burton, Cumbria, and South Yorkshire, the authority runs the national fusion laboratory with a team of around 2,600. Its remit spans from fundamental plasma science to robotics, materials testing, and tritium science - the specific, unglamorous domains that determine whether a tokamak wall survives or fails.
The attack surface is physical, digital, and nuclear-adjacent. Systems like MAST-Upgrade, the world's largest operational spherical tokamak, and the decommissioning of JET involve control networks, legacy industrial protocols, and research data integrity at scale. The STEP programme, designed to demonstrate net energy from fusion, will only expand that surface. Protecting this infrastructure isn't abstract; it's about ensuring the continuity of a multi-decade scientific programme that generates billions in gross value added and supports an estimated 6,000 jobs annually in the wider UK economy.
The security posture must account for state-level threat actors interested in strategic research IP, as well as the operational technology (OT) challenges unique to experimental physics facilities. This means building credibility across both IT and OT domains, understanding the specific tooling and protocols used in high-energy physics environments, and working with a team focused on developing supply chains and training the next generation of fusion scientists and engineers.
