Nuclear fusion.

Could this be the part of gold waiting at the end of the rainbow

to provide energy which is cheap, clean and inexhaustible?

For years, it sounded like science fiction.

Scientists plan to use this 23,000-ton reactor to create a tiny star here on Earth.

This then used to power the world.

As remarkable as that sounds, it looks like thermonuclear fusion is finally on the way.

And it could solve some of our biggest problems.

Get it right and it holds out the potential for producing almost unlimited supplies of energy pretty much forever.

Fusion has long been the holy grail for nuclear science.

Because unlike fission, which drives our current nuclear power stations,

it produces clean, efficient, almost limitless energy if scientists can get it to work.

Now, if that sounds like a really big deal to you, it's because it is.

So how does it work?

How close are we to being able to use it?

And could it save the world?

You're listening to stories of our times from the times and the Sunday times.

I'm Manvin Rana.

Today, thermonuclear fusion, a star on Earth

to power the world.

The breakthrough came at three minutes past one on a Monday in the morning in December at a lab at an hour away from San Francisco.

That's Constance Campfner, a Times reporter who's been tracking the recent advances in nuclear fusion.

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