A team of global experts working on a fusion power generator in the United Kingdom is entering its fifth development campaign in pursuit of nearly limitless energy source. 

It's the next step in a line of work orders planned by the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority through 2027. The effort supports the country's private-public STEP Fusion effort to bring a power plant online, though commercial application is likely still years away. 

More than 200 researchers from 40 institutions around the world are involved with the project, and the latest improvements are in preparation for a six-month test that includes 950 plasma pulses, according to a news release. 

"The upcoming cutting-edge upgrades will allow us to generate hotter, higher performance plasmas that move us closer to those in future fusion power plants more than ever before," Andrew Thornton, head of Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak upgrade operations, said. 

As explained by the United States Department of Energy, fusion energy could be a game-changing source of abundant power, made when atoms collide to form larger ones. Byproduct heat can be used to power a turbine for electricity. 

Advanced magnetic containment devices called tokamaks are often used to control super-hot plasma, the same energy-making process used by the sun. While tokamaks are often doughnut-shaped, the UKAEA's chamber is spherical, according to the release. 

By comparison, fission reactions power the world's 440 nuclear plants by splitting atoms. The upside is air pollution-free electricity that accounts for 9% of the planet's needs, the World Nuclear Association reported. 

The energy comes with long-lasting nuclear waste and well-documented meltdown risks, though its proponents contest the severity of those concerns.

Fusion has the energy perks without the hazardous cons, but sustaining the reactions affordably has been a big challenge. 

Details from the UKAEA's next step sound like something from the Starship Enterprise's engineering section. The plan is to add a new Electron Bernstein Wave plasma-heating system. 

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Two more neutral beam injectors are set to be onboarded, as well. This will double the unit's heating power and marks the first time this type of heating system will be used in a spherical tokamak, the release stated. 

The focus on heat is needed because tokamaks hit 100 million degrees Celsius, according to experiments detailed by the DOE. 

The work is geared toward helping the United Kingdom meet its clean-energy goals, with many benchmarks set for 2030. Expanded nuclear use reduces the need to burn oil, gas, and coal, which all produce harmful air pollution. 

Fusion's main hurdle may be economics, as experiments cost billions of dollars, Nuclear Business Platform reported. New York financial advisory firm Lazard's analysis found that solar and wind are cheaper, faster options to deploy to meet surging grid demand that is driving higher electricity rates. 

Solar panels can provide household energy independence by lowering or even eliminating your electricity bill with abundant energy from the sun. Staying informed about grid concerns and efforts to meet growing demand can help you make smart decisions for your house. 

For their part, UKAEA scientists plan to learn some important details from the latest project, which could expedite large-scale fusion electricity production. 

Better predictive modeling for future plants is among the gains to be realized, per the release.

"This campaign will allow us to build on the world-first achievements from the previous scientific campaign," MAST Upgrade Science head James Harrison said. "Over the coming months, we hope to push further the boundaries of what's possible in spherical tokamak science."

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