Success of fusion changes everything

News this week that a lab in the US (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) has successful achieved a net energy gain from a fusion reaction, is an incredible breakthrough.

Fusion is literally the energy source that has been powering science fiction movies since I was a kid - from 'Back to the Future' to 'Star Wars' and 'Star Trek', every great thing that happens in the future is possible because of the success of this particular technology. And now it's here.

Fusion is the holy grail of energy generation.

It's highly efficient and clean (no carbon is produced as a result), but up until now the energy required to initiate the reaction has always been more than the energy it created.

On 5 December 2022 that all changed; plus what's even more encouraging is the the equipment used to create this net energy gain was old technology from the 1980s.

Now that we have proof that net gain fusion is possible, it opens up a whole new, exciting future for the technology.

Scientists are still understandably some way away from making this discovery commercially-viable, but in combination with other powerful tech, like artificial intelligence, we may just be at the dawn of a historic new era in the evolution of human society.

More: