Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy - BBC News 

Really impressed by the camera man being able to stand there.

*"The power of the sun in the palm of my hands"* Never thought that would become a reality

The power of the sun in the palm of my hand!

It's hard because in the sun it is a combination of vast pressures (due to gravity) and temperature. We cannot simulate the pressure here on earth, so we can compensate by boosting the temperature to something like 7x the temperature of the sun's core. That's why it's hard. You have to boost the temps to that and hold it, and do it efficiently enough so that the energy released by the fusion is more than what you put in to reach those conditions.

Unless I'm mistaken and it's a technical term, 50 kettles of energy is the most British thing one could say to explain the energy output.

As a nuclear engineer and former plasma physicist: keep up the good work, this will change everything for future generations!

The weird audio "scratches" between transitions are really annoying

We should as a society praise and cover these researchers and scientists as much as we cover these useless influencers, that would inspire kids to pursue science and ultimately move us forward faster

Just like Doc Ock once said, "The power of the sun, in the palm of my hand."

The Fusion Reactor will be up there with agriculture, the Internet, combustion engines and the wheel as one of the most important inventions of all time

The possibility of a resonance cascade scenario is extremely unlikely.

Thank you scientists. You are doing great work! Hope my children or grandchildren will be able to benefit from this.

Scientists: “Unlimited energy!” Energy Companies: “Double the price because it’s unlimited”

Kudos to those young people who are striving so diligently to benefit all of us. It’s nice to hear good news for a change.

I watched the first 10 seconds of this video like 20 times, that's unbelievable

I fused my ass to the couch so I know it's possible.

What was surprising to me, was that they were able to build something that could withstand temperatures "10 times hotter than the heart of the sun". I honestly didn't think that was possible. And that was for 5 seconds. The idea of building a structure that could take that temperature 24/7 is amazing.

For these physicists that was the best 5 seconds of their lives so far.

I know this is British, but I loved “only enough power to power 30 kettles”.

Even its hotter than the sun, it still can't defeat the cameraman with his camera

I can’t imagine the level of precision engineering to put this thing together. Congrats to the team! Question is when can we expect Mr. Fusion?

what a good time to be 15 years old. to see 50+ years of scientific development when I grow old is such a huge motivation for me to not die, i wanna see more stuff like this change the world

The power of the sun, in the palm of my hand

Interesting but, understandibly, much essential information missing here. The device through which one of the scientists walked basically looks like a Tokamak being used since the 1960s but on a much larger scale. No surprises here. Most significant, if told correctly and interpreted correctly, is there is a small energy gain over a period of 5 seconds. This indeed is a significant improvement over the tens to hundred milliseconds achieved at the end of the 1970s. Compared with nuclear fission plants the advantages of fusion plants are so overwhelming that we really should invest in that road. But given, as said, that the tokamak route is being researched since the 1960s it will be a very long time for that route to deliver a lsignificant output fission factory.

"enough power for 60 kettles" Glad to know that Americans don't have a monopoly on measuring things with stupid units.

Hats off to all the hard working Scientists ❤️🇱🇰

That thing looks like the tunnel from "The Flash"

In school, 40 years ago, I was told that a "successful fusion reactor is 30 years away... ...and always will be."

Scientist don't get enough appreciation for the work that they are doing thank you

*"Why does it takes so long* ? Because it's really hard."

So I'm not the only one that looked at this and thought it was a screenshot from Event Horizon, right?

This looks like a late '90s music video.

The fact that people are even making fusion reactions happen at ALL Is unbelievably amazing.

I would never ask a nuclear physicist “why is it so hard” like i would even be able to understand the complexity of such a question

It finally happened!!! Cannot believe they did it! Congratulations! New hope for the whole humanity!

How can we reach temps 10x the core of our sun and it doesnt melt any metal that was in contact with its heat like in 0:10?

I don't think people have any idea of how much electricity we can genuinely create once this project is fully maximised. The Sun releases a massive amount of energy. Theoretically, nuclear fusion could release up to 4 times the amount of energy that nuclear fission releases. It's also 100% safe. Nuclear meltdowns would be close to impossible. This means that making electricity could become 100% sustainable and much much cheaper. It also means that Porsche might actually succeed with their sustainable fuel project, as one of the main problems is the sheer amount of electricity needed to make it and the sustainability factor. Nuclear fusion is the future of electricity.

I love that the power is being measured in kettles

I remember when the leader of the windmill demonstraters said that their main concern with windmills was that they wings require so much electricity to spin around.

As long as you don't turn yourself into an octopus cyborg I guess it's a good deal.

This is the highest amount of fusion power ever produced, which is an achievement for JET yes, but the fusion gain factor "Q" is what's important. The Q effectively means the ratio of heat produced compared to the heat input. Anything less than 1 means you used more energy than you get out of it. We've only been able to consistently get above 1 through the use of fission bombs, which are obviously not practical for power generation. JET's Q from this experiment is only .33, JET previously set a record of .67 decades ago, and the record right now is NIF's .70.

It's amazing to think how far we've come as a species. Just think how far we could go if we put aside petty things and focus on the betterment of the species as a whole

“The power of the sun in the palm of my hand”

Why the Fuck isn't this on every news outlet world wide .. If we can come together to make this really work then alot of the worlds problems could be fixed fairly quick..

the power of the sun.. in the palm of my hands

Agreed: hardworking scientists, computer programmers, engineers, machinists! Nobody stole anything from anyone. THIS is what real science is: published for the world to analyze.

This is just ridiculous lol. How are people so smart they could build something like this it blows me away. I could probably barely build a Lego toy.

The camera man is invisible, strong... Of course he can stand in that machine

Absolutely stunning work, I hope I can see this come to commercial use but that may not happen given my age. But for my daughters to can and I thank you and all of your hard work and dedication.

Physicists are such wonderful optimists, and at most times, they truly deliver as well.

Scientist: 150 000 000 degrees, 10 times hotter than Sun, really complex BBC camera: Hold my beer

Wow, that glitchy sound played on all the transitions is super obnoxious.

I lived in Oxford 15 years ago. My upstairs neighbor was a nuclear physicist working on fusion. He had recently decided to focus his career on management instead of research. He told me that fusion power would not happen in his career. He said, possibly in 50 years, but that was still very optimistic.

I am really happy they are making progress... This energy source has been 20 years away for the last 40 years..

Dear Brits, after seeing you measure energy output in "kettles", you don't get to complain about Americans measuring distances in terms of football fields or any other arbitrary unit.

I contemplate suicide multiple times a week , the only thing that's keeping me alive is the eager to see what the future will be like , I hope humanity will seek peace and science to further our species into the next type of civilization

Absolutely incredible work hats off to all the hard working scientists involved this could be a game changer not only for providing cheaper energy to the masses but all so to save the environment from fossil fuels

This piece remarkably leaves out one of the most important pieces of information. As I understand it, the plasma was only sustained for 5 seconds because of the physical limitations of this reactor, not because it collapsed or failed in some regard. They can't physically keep going by choice because it would seriously damage the reactor. The ITER reactor (much larger and currently being built in France) has already been designed with this in mind. So, if everything is correct, there is a good chance that when ITER starts up in 2025 it will prove functional within the first few months of testing.

they should get a deadline of 1 year to finish so they can complete it in 5 years instead of 30 :D

I for one welcome our fusion reactor masters.

"Only produced enough power for about 60 kettles" is the most BBC thing i've ever heard 🤣

I see the great progress they're making toward the next generation of Nvidia GPUs

When he said 10 times hotter than the heart of the sun, I felt that shit

WE HAVE TO FIGHT WE HAVE TO STRUGGLE WE HAVE TO SPEND WORLD 🌎 RESOURCES WE CAN FUSE 🌞

We’ve been a decade away from Fusion Energy for like 50 years now 😩 Still, kudos to all the great minds whose efforts bring us closer to breakthrough

The power of nuclear fusion. That is what powers the stars of our sky and soon enough we may have that power in Marseille, and then the world. A spectical of human ingenuity!

I never understood how something can be "10 times hotter than the heart of the sun" statements because that would mean it could melt ANYTHING instantly ESPECIALLY if it's way hotter than the sun itself.

this just proves the power Cameramen have and how they deserve the respect of the masses-

"creating mini stars inside like this reactor is the greatest technological challenge humanity has ever faced" - this is the stepping stone concept for our civilization to achieve the historical transition in the kardashev scale

"TONY STARK WAS ABLE TO BUILD THIS IN A CAVE!!!"

It's incredible to think that 40 years from now we'll have unlimited energy. Im so glad this keeps getting funded.

1:23 Did I hear it right? Did they measure how much energy produced, in kettles? Are kettles now a unit of measurement? xD

Amazed, first positive news the BBC has reported in 2 years

Exciting that fusion will be getting close to break even. Hopefully once that milestone is broken, lots more investment (private and public) will go into developing power plants.

The creator of this technology also uses four mechanical arms attached to his back to assist with this project

When I was young (in the 80`s) somebody predicted it would take up to 2050 before it would be viable. Could be right.

Finally, humanity is close to saying "The power of the sun in the palm of my hand."

“This is machine is 150 million degrees, 10 times hotter than the sun” This guy: **stands inside it**

Only the BBC would measure the energy produced by a fusion reactor in kettles

"Generated power for only 60 kettles" that has got to be the most British thing ive ever heard

“The power of the sun in the palm of my hand” - Dr Otto Octavius

"Why is it taking so long" Yeah, sorry we failed your expectations of creating literally a star inside a lab within few minutes.

The power of the sun.... in the palm of my hand

The thumbnail looks like a venue where 90’s R&B are taken at.

Congratulations to the whole team for making this incredible discovery! A giant leap for all mankind!

I have worked on nuclear fusion for almost twenty years in the past at MIT, PPPL and JET, and was very passionate as those who have made the very kind comments on this post. I also participated in the DT campaigns at both the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) at PPPL and JET with the Collective Thomson Scattering diagnostic. Also congratulations to the JET Team for this accomplishment and all the hard work that went into it. However, over time, I have decided that DT fusion is not in the best interests for mankind’s future energy and environmental needs, exciting as it is and as I was. What changed my mind was a talk by the ITER engineering team at JET in the late 1990s. They described the plans for the enormous lithium blanket modules that would encompass the ITER vacuum vessel and breed tritium from the energetic neutron fusion products of the DT reaction. It occurred to me that there would be many tons of radioactive waste that would be produced in these lithium blanket modules that would have to be buried along with the vacuum vessel when ITER is retired, due to the energetic neutron radiation activating the structural material. Unfortunately, DT fusion is not as environmentally friendly as I had hoped it would be. It is a good project to train future scientists and engineers, but my hope is that a cleaner aneutronic nuclear fusion fuel would be the mainstream fusion effort in the future. The best fusion fuel that does not have energetic neutrons as a fusion product is proton boron^11, which has three energetic helium^4 particles as fusion products and which may be directly converted into electricity. It is much more difficult to fuse, and probably would need a different type of plasma physics regime to operate with only ions. Bremsstrahlung radiation from the relativistic electrons in a quasi-neutral plasma, such as in a DT fusion plasma, would take away too much input energy in a quasi-neutral proton-boron^11 plasma to achieve net electrical energy out than is needed to run a proton boron^11 fusion reactor with a quasi-neutral plasma. However, if inspired scientists and engineers would take on this nuclear fuel challenge, then we would have a much more environmentally friendly energy future for terrestrial fusion energy. DT fusion might be better suited for extraterrestrial space power applications, where the environment is already very radioactive with cosmic radiation. However, the DT reactors are projecting to be quite large like ITER, which may prove to be impractical for space power applications. I highly recommend that highly motivated scientists and engineers consider developing solutions for proton boron^11 nuclear fusion as an alternative to DT fusion. Thank you.

Thats a really expensive oven

I bet you didnt know that the advancement curve for fusion has been greater than the advances made in computing power :) You might also want to check out the companies General Fusion, Helion Energy and TAE Technologies - They have decades of experience with several prototype fusion reactors and are so so close - Wont be long now :)

I wrote a high school paper on fusion energy back in 1979. The speed of light is fixed for all observers. And too with practical fusion, it's a constant 30 years out...

Mini sun...just like Doc Ock always wanted Jokes aside, this is good news. I really do hope I'll get to see it be humanity's main power source in my lifetime

“The power of the sun, in the palm of my hand.”-Doctor Otto Octavius

Still 30 years away from a power plant?!

I want kettles to become a unit of measuring fusion energy, and I will fight anyone who says otherwise.

I don’t think we give enough credit to the scientists we have here on home soil. These are the things that make me proud to be British not political stuff.

It's so neat but scares the shit out of me, CERN also. Man's hand in anything can be disastrous, but as long as it's an error of circumstance and not a pre-planned test of effects for insidious purposes.

Prank him john **starts up reactor**

I remember reading an article in a news magazine in 1973 which predicted that commercial fusion reactors would be in operation by 1986. The big problem is the enormous activation energy. ITER is the most expensive experiment in history.

Up Next: Aliens finally visit saying, "We have been waiting on your to discover this."

“That’s not full auto?” “This is.”

awful decision by the sound designer to use that glitchy sound as a transition.