Energy: Europe: Tilting toward fusion: Today the French Phenix breeder scores well; tomorrow, fusion seems the byword

The first nuclear station to deliver electric energy to a power grid on an industrial scale was the Calder Hall power station in Cumbria, in the United Kingdom, some 20 years ago. And 17 years earlier, across the English Channel, French physicist Frederic Jolit and his team registered the first patents regarding the possibilities of a continuous (chain) nuclear reaction — a milestone in the development of nuclear power.