Researchers working on a project centered around fusion energy — the process that powers stars — have hailed “record-breaking” results produced by a landmark experiment in the U.K.

Engineers and scientists from the EUROfusion consortium were able to produce 59 megajoules of heat energy from fusion across a period of five seconds on Dec. 21, 2021. It surpasses a previous record from 1997, when 22 megajoules of heat energy was generated.

Although the energy output from this experiment was not large, reports indicate that around 60 kettles can be boiled with it.

Results were obtained from the Joint European Torus or JET facility in Oxfordshire (U.K.). EUROfusion, co-funded the European Commission and made up thousands of engineers scientists students and experts throughout Europe.

Tony Donne was the EUROfusion program manager and stated that “the record” and the more important things learned about the fusion process under these conditions as well, which fully supports our predictions, showed that EUROfusion is on track to create a world full of fusion energy.

Donne stated, “If fusion can be maintained for 5 seconds, it can last for 5 minutes. And then we can continue for 5-10 minutes. We can also do this for 5 and 5 hours when we expand our operations on future machines.”

Although fusion is still in its early stages, it has high potential and requires a lot of effort.

According to a JET project statement, fusion would provide a “near limitless green electricity source over the long-term” using low amounts of fuel and materials that are easily sourced around the world.

JET is operated by the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy. It’s a member EUROfusion. Fusion can be described as the “process that occurs in the heartbeat of stars and gives the power that drives all of the universe.”

It states that “when light nuclei fuse to create a heavier nuclear nucleus, they emit bursts in energy.” It is different from fission which can be used to create nuclear power plants.

Those working on the JET project said the results reported this week were “a major boost” for the work being undertaken At the ITER is a much more extensive project in south France.

They stated that the larger French-based project, as well as future power plants, will use the same fuel mix of deuterium and tritium (D–T), and operate in similar conditions to record-breaking EUROfusion experiments at Culham Science Center, Oxford.

ITER’s focus is on the creation of a magnet fusion device called a Tokamak.

The ITER team stated that the tokomak was designed “to prove the feasibility and emission-free use of large-scale fusion energy, based on the same principles as the Sun and stars.”

ITER is still under construction. It is expected to generate net electricity when it’s up and running.

ITER says this refers to the situation when the total power of a fusion plasma pulse exceeds that which was injected to heat plasma.

The EU, China and the U.S. back ITER.