The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory claims to have achieved the seemingly impossible by generating more energy with a fusion reaction than they put into it.
Their experiment, which used the world's largest and highest energy laser system at the National Ignition Facility, generated 20 percent more energy than needed.
Despite the modest energy output, the system generated enough power to boil around two to three kettles.
The existence proof is provided by the fact that we were able to get more energy out than we put in. It could potentially be a source of energy in the future, as it can be built on and improved upon.
The " holy grail" in fusion energy is a net energy gain.
Over the years, fusion reactor designs have been tested, but always needed more energy to get started than they were able to get out of.
There's still a lot of work to be done before we can start replacing fossil fuels.
We do not know if the technology can be scaled up to power an entire grid.
Riccardo Betti, chief scientist of the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester, told the NYT that going from there to actually energy on the grid is a very long and difficult path.
fusion power is emissions-free and doesn't run the risk of causing a nuclear meltdown, so it's a lot of promise.
The latest experiment is seen by experts as an important step forward and a reason to be optimistic about the future of fusion energy.
The White House science adviser said it took generations of people to achieve this goal. It's a scientific achievement.
He said it was an engineering marvel.
Nuclear fusion has been achieved with the use of 192 lasers.
Fusion scientists claim net energy gain in a huge breakthrough.
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