Nuclear fusion sees sudden bursts of potential breakthroughs

The fusion of a kilogramme of deuterium could release at least four million times as much energy as burning a kilo of coal

Commercially viable nuclear fusion would be a giant step tow­a­­rds solving global energy equat­ions. Imagine a way to produce ch­eap inexhaustible power, which is moreover clean, with no emissions and no radiation or waste products. There’s also no chance of Chernobyl/ Fukushima type meltdowns, or explosions.

Enormous investments have been made in fusion rese­arch since the potential payoff is so large but the problems have been intractable for 60 years. There’s hope now because of several breakthroughs since August last year, the latest one coming just about a week ago.

The power output from different fusion experiments has jumped, and