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Environment
Justin Wark, Professor of Physics, University of Oxford

Nuclear fusion may still be decades away, but the latest breakthrough could speed up its development

NIF's target chamber, where a powerful laser is used to start nuclear fusion reactions Photo by Jason Laurea/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), CC BY-NC-SA

Nuclear fusion holds huge promise as a source of clean, abundant energy that could power the world.

Now, fusion researchers at a national laboratory in the US have achieved something physicists have been working towards for decades, a process known as “ignition”. This step involves getting more energy out from fusion reactions than is put in by a laser.

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