Safe, limitless and finally here: Clean energy’s ‘holy grail’ achieved in US lab
The United States was poised to announce that it had finally succeeded in producing a net energy gain through a fusion reaction that could create almost limitless, clean energy.
Fusion energy replicates the sun's process for creating energy
Fusion energy, which duplicates the process of the sun, merges two hydrogen atoms under extreme heat and pressure to release vast amounts of energy.
Scientists have been working since the 1950s and spent billions of dollars in the process to produce a net energy gain from fusion and many thought it was unlikely to happen in the near future.
But the Washington Post and the Financial Times are reporting that the breakthrough has been achieved and that it could provide an abundant and reliable source of power to replace fossil fuels with much smaller amounts of radioactive waste which decline over 100 years rather than thousands in the case of fission energy.
Scientists believe that in theory a small cup of hydrogen would be sufficient to power a household for several hundred years. It has long been considered it the holy grail of energy.
The FT reported that Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, had achieved the net gain in the past two weeks and an announcement was due to be made this week.
While there is still scepticism that commercial fusion was possible the breakthrough was likely to be a massive step forward.
Media reports said the fusion reaction produced 2.5 megajoules of energy which was 120 per cent of the 2.1 megajoules of energy input.
The laboratory at the centre of the breakthrough has confirmed there had been a successful experiment but that analysis was ongoing.
