Nuclear fusion breakthrough: 'Holy grail' of power production is closer to reality

For years, nuclear scientists have tried to replicate the fusion process that takes place in billions of stars to create clean power on Earth. The spherical tokamak uses a powerful magnetic field to confine hydrogen isotopes into a spherical shape, similar to a cored apple, as they are heated by microwaves into a plasma to produce fusion - and clean energy However, the Oxfordshire-based experts, who worked with colleagues at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, say their reactor is smaller and runs with less plasma heating power – possibly paving the way for the first fusion power plants. A spherical tokamak holds plasma in tighter magnetic fields, shaping it more like a cored apple than a donut The researchers say temperatures of over 100 million degrees have been produced in the ST40 spherical tokamak In the ST40, hydrogen gas is heated to become 'plasma' – a soup of positively charged particles and negatively charged particles. To produce commercial energy, future fusion power plants will need to achieve temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius, according to Tokamak Energy. Fusion power works by colliding heavy hydrogen atoms to form helium - releasing vast amounts of energy in the process, as occurs naturally in the centre of stars Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station, one of three active coal-fired power stations in the UK.