LONDON: The European Commission has given approval to an EU nuclear fusion project that aims at providing a limitless and clean source of energy to end reliance on fossil fuels that aid global warming.
The consortium, led by Mike Dunne of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxford, UK, hopes to develop commercial nuclear fusion using lasers to crush together isotopes of hydrogen - deuterium and tritium - to create helium.
This very chemical reaction powers the Sun, releasing neutrons and huge amounts of energy.
According to a New Scientist report, the European Commission gave approval in July for the High Power Laser Energy Research (HiPER) facility.
Last week, negotiations began to establish where the facility will be located, how the 500-million pounds project will be funded and what technical options to pursue.
"This project is now going ahead. It's just a matter of working out the detail," said Dunne, leader of the consortium of scientists from the 15 nations, which hopes to begin construction of the facility in 2011.
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