The carbon-free energy of the future: this fusion breakthrough changes everything | Arthur Turrell

In a moment scientists have dreamed of for 50 years, a single reaction has proved that star power can be harnessed here on Earth

This is a moment that scientists have dreamed of for well over half a century. The US's National Ignition Facility (NIF) has smashed the longest-standing goal in the quest for carbon-free energy from fusion, the nuclear process that powers stars.

Researchers from NIF used the world's most energetic laser to fire 2.05 megajoules (MJ) of energy into a millimetre-sized capsule of hydrogen fuel. Reaching temperatures many times those found in the sun's core and pressures 300bn times those normally experienced on Earth, a wave of nuclear reactions ripped through the fusion fuel, releasing 3.15 MJ of fusion energy - 1.1 MJ more than was put in - over a few tens of nanoseconds.