Nuclear fusion is the process by which stars generate energy. Extreme temperatures and pressures in a star’s core force the nuclei of atoms to fuse together. This releases huge amounts of energy. Replicating this process on Earth could resolve energy problems, but such a fusion reactor remains a thing of the future.
Temperatures of more than 100 million degrees Celsius are required to fuse of atoms on Earth.
“At OpenStar, we’re trying to build this thing called a levitated dipole and we’ve just achieved our first plasma,” nuclear physicist and OpenStar founder and CEO Ratu Mataira tells Cosmos.