A breakthrough has been made in the race to create nuclear fusion.
Physicists have been working on the technology for a long time as it promises a potential source of clean energy.
A fusion experiment has overcome a major barrier and produced more energy than was put in.
There is still work to be done before fusion powers homes are built.
The experiment took place at the National Ignition Facility.
Nuclear fusion is considered to be the Holy Grail of energy production.
A lot of energy is released when light atoms are forced together.
Nuclear fission involves heavy atoms being split apart. Nuclear power stations use fission technology that produces a lot of waste that continues to give out radiation for a long time. It needs to be stored in a safe place.
Nuclear fusion produces more power and less waste. The process doesn't contribute to climate change.
Keeping the elements together in fusion requires a lot of pressure and temperature. No experiment has produced more energy than the amount put in.
There is a $3.5 billion experiment in California.
A small amount of hydrogen is put into a capsule.
The hydrogen fuel is compressed using a 192-beam laser.
The capsule can be heated to 100 million degrees Celsius, hotter than the center of the Sun, and compressed to more than 100 billion times that of Earth's atmosphere, thanks to the strength of the laser.
The capsule begins to collapse under the force of these forces.
Dr Melanie Windridge is the CEO of Fusion Energy Insights. Today's results put us on the path to commercialization.
Prof Chittenden said it was a "true breakthrough moment" which proves the "holy grail" of fusion can be achieved.
Physicists around the world applauded the work of the international science community.
The work done by many scientists in the US, UK and around the world is what makes today's success possible. A door is opening to new science with the unlocked fusion energy.
Prof Chittenden said there is a lot more to be done before nuclear fusion can be used to power homes.
The experiment needed billions of dollars of investment and only produced enough energy to boil a few kettles. If we want to get a power station up and running, we might have to do these experiments once every second. It is a day in between experiments.
Although the experiment got more energy out than the laser put in, it didn't include the amount of energy the lasers need to work.
The amount of energy generated in this experiment is very small. It's huge for the scientists who have been working on this technology for a long time.
A fusion powered future is one step closer. There is a lot of work to be done before this becomes a reality.
Science works in this experiment. The amount of energy it produces will have to be greatly increased.
Scientists won't be able to think about scaling the process up until this happens.
This experiment has cost billions of dollars and fusion is not cheap.
The promise of a clean energy source will be an incentive to overcome these challenges.
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