An alliance of 35 countries has finished laying the groundwork for one of humanity’s most ambitious experiments – to harness nearly unlimited amounts of energy by creating ‘small stars’ on Earth.
The extreme heat and gravity inside the core of the Sun and other stars make hydrogen atoms collide and fuse into heavier helium atoms, releasing tremendous amounts of energy in the process. Scientists want to replicate a similar mechanism on Earth in order to generate energy that will be efficient, renewable and carbon emission-free, so it will not cause climate change.