Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough

Nuclear fusion is the process that gives the Sun its energy.

Scientists from more than 50 countries have been trying to recreate it on Earth since the 1960s.
They hope it could eventually provide huge quantities of clean energy for the world.
In nuclear fusion, pairs of tiny particles called atoms are heated and forced together to make one heavier one.
It is the opposite of nuclear fission, in which heavy atoms are split apart. Nuclear power stations currently use nuclear fission to generate electricity.

The US's National Ignition Facility (NIF) has announced it successfully used a 192-beam laser to turn a tiny amount of hydrogen into enough energy to power about 15 - 20 kettles.

This means that - for the first time - scientists were able to generate more power than the lasers put into the experiment.