Harwell was the site of the UK’s first nuclear reactor. Harwell was also a centre of early fusion research in the 1950s. Britain’s original large-scale experimental device, ZETA, was housed in one of the RAF hangars at this site.
It seems like he was eager to distinguish himself from the "elders" of FSF [...] For anything "revolutionary" to happen in the sciences one must accept the risk of living in poverty like Tesla (the person, not the right-wing fanatics) and Torvalds isn't too old to "cause a stir"