It could still be decades away until we know if clean, limitless power is achievable but there have been two recent breakthroughs towards fusion power. Whether it works or not, the important thing to note is things have moved past the theoretical stage when talking about fusion power and there a number of projects already underway to see if it’s a viable option in the race for alternative energy sources.
For those techy amongst you, fusion power is the power generated by nuclear fusion processes. In fusion reactions two light atomic nuclei fuse together to form a heavier nucleus (in contrast with fission power). In doing so they release a comparatively large amount of energy arising from the binding energy due to the strong nuclear force which is manifested as an increase in temperature of the reactants. The recent research almost breaks even on energy input to energy output ratio which as you can imagine means it’s not currently viable as a power source but it is a big breakthrough towards the goal of fusion power.
