Experts hail big step forward in fusion technology in UK

LONDON (AP) — European scientists have taken a significant step closer to mastering a technology that could allow them to one day harness nuclear fusion, providing a clean and almost limitless source of energy. British officials said Wednesday that researchers at the Joint European Torus experiment near Oxford managed to produce a record amount of heat energy over a five-second period. The U.K. Atomic Energy Authority said the 59 megajoules of sustained fusion energy produced were more than double the previous record in 1997. The facility is home to the world’s largest and most powerful operational tokamak _ a donut-shaped device for performing controlled fusion. Experts said it was a significant result, but still a very long way from commercial fusion.