Advances Are Made Into Nuclear Fusion As An Alternative Energy Source

ABINGDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 22: Control Systems Engineer Sam Herschmann checks a Telescopic Articulated Remote Mast (TARM) during tests in the Remote Application in Challenging Environments (RACE) building at the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), where the Joint European Torus (JET) plasma physics experiment is based on September 22, 2022 in Abingdon, England. In February 2022, JET scientists at the centre announced that they had generated the highest sustained energy pulse ever created by fusing together atoms, more than doubling their own record set in 1997. The UK Atomic Energy Authority hosts JET, but its scientific programme is run by a European collaboration named "EUROfusion". ITER, the successor to JET, is currently being built in France, with the first plasma scheduled for December 2025. Scientists have strived to harness nuclear fusion as an alternative energy source for decades but recent developments at JET suggest that a breakthrough is edging closer. Research teams are already carrying out stress tests on materials to work out how to construct a nuclear fusion power plant, with Professor Chris Llewellyn Smith, director of energy research at Oxford University, stating that "with enough money we could probably build a fusion reactor now but it would not be economical. The challenge is to make it reliable and competitive." (Footage by Leon Neal/Getty Images)