Recent breakthroughs in nuclear fusion technology have many scientists excited about its potential to provide virtually unlimited low-emission energy reserves. But critics question whether nuclear fusion will be ready in time to deal with the impact on the climate crisis.
In the race to find reliable sources of renewable energy, a different type of nuclear power is being devised as a promising long-term solution.
For decades nuclear power has been generated using a process called fission. This is when unstable atoms such as uranium are torn apart, in a burst of energy and long-lived radiation.
Nuclear fission accounts for about 10 percent of the world's electricity, but carries the stigma of dire devastation – like the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, or the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Nuclear fusion, by comparison, forces smaller atoms together. This results in a burst of energy, some helium by-products, and only a small amount of short-lived radiation.
Earlier this year, the JET reactor in Oxfordshire, England, achieved a major fusion breakthrough.
This generates about 60 megajoules of energy in a five-second burst - which is enough power to boil a jug 60 times.
