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UCLA researchers create nuclear fusion in lab Attempts to create controlled nuclear fusion - the process that powers stars - have been a source of continuing controversy. Scientists have struggled for decades to effectively harness nuclear fusion in hot plasma for energy generation - potentially a cleaner alternative to the current nuclear-fission reactors - but have so far been unsuccessful at turning this into an economically viable process.Meanwhile, claims of cheap "bench-top" fusion by electrolysis of heavy water ("cold fusion") and by sonic bubble-formation in water (sonoluminescence) have been greeted with skepticism, and have not been successfully reproduced.In this week's Nature, Brian Naranjo and colleagues report a new kind of "bench-top" nuclear fusion, based on measurements that seem considerably more convincing than these previous claims.
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