The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (the Authority) is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of nuclear fusion power. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
On its formation in 1954, the Authority was responsible for the UK's entire nuclear program, both civil and defence, as well as the policing of nuclear sites. It made pioneering developments in nuclear power, overseeing the peaceful development of nuclear technology and performing much scientific research. However since the early 1970s its areas of work have been gradually reduced, with functions transferred to other government organisations as well as to the private sector.
The Authority now focuses on UK and European fusion power research programs at Culham in Oxfordshire, including the world's most powerful fusion device, the Joint European Torus. The research aims to develop fusion power as a commercially viable, environmentally sound energy source for the future.
The Authority also remains responsible for managing the records service for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
Read more about United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority: History, Locations, Dounreay
Famous quotes containing the words united, kingdom, atomic, energy and/or authority:
“I thought it altogether proper that I should take a brief furlough from official duties at Washington to mingle with you here to-day as a comrade, because every President of the United States must realize that the strength of the Government, its defence in war, the army that is to muster under its banner when our Nation is assailed, is to be found here in the masses of our people.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace. Money will come if we seek first the Kingdom of God—the rest will be given.”
—Mother Teresa (b. 1910)
“When man entered the atomic age, he opened a door into a new world. What we eventually find in that new world, nobody can predict.”
—Ted Sherdeman. Gordon Douglas. Dr. Medford (Edmund Gwenn)
“There are no accidents, only nature throwing her weight around. Even the bomb merely releases energy that nature has put there. Nuclear war would be just a spark in the grandeur of space. Nor can radiation “alter” nature: she will absorb it all. After the bomb, nature will pick up the cards we have spilled, shuffle them, and begin her game again.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)
“Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.”
—Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870–1924)