Video footage has been released of the plasma get by the Wendelstein 7 - XTC nuclear unification nuclear reactor , one of several that has successfully trapped a blood plasma in the past   few class .

The reactor in Greifswald , Germany , was switched on two age ago , suspending a atomic number 2 plasm for the first time . Earlier this yr , it then also manage tosuspend a hydrogen plasma . It is a collaboration between the   Max - Planck Institute for Plasma Physics and the Wigner Research Centre for Physics , both in Germany .

This footage is a compilation of images take from inside the nuclear reactor , showing how the plasma is trap in spite of appearance . you could see the swirls and movement of the blood plasma , which was sustained for a few milliseconds , a pocket-sized but still pregnant amount of time .

The Wendelstein 7 - X , or W7 - X , is a type of reactor be intimate as astellarator . This is shaped like a twisted donut , which keep the plasma confined by twisting magnetised fields around it .

to kickstart nuclear optical fusion and produce a plasma , passing eminent temperatures of about 100 million degree Celsius ( 180 million degree Fahrenheit ) are required . It ’s taken 19 years to build the W7 - X , at a cost of $ 1.1 billion .

But the payoffcould be enormous . A work reactor could theoretically produce more energy than is put in , with the added benefit of generating basically zero wastefulness products .

The W-7X is n’t the only experimental atomic optical fusion nuclear reactor in maturation . In December 2016 , scientists at the National Fusion Research Institute ( NFRI ) in South Korea also managed to hold up a atomic number 1 plasm , this meter for70 seconds . Their reactor is a tokamak , forge like a regular doughnut , and uses a large current to twist the plasma .

China and the US are also working on their owntokamak atomic fusion reactorcalled the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak ( EAST ) , which produced a plasm for 102 seconds in February 2016 .

And just yesterday , an outside project call the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor ( ITER ) in France reached thehalfway pointin its construction , with scientists desire to switch it on in 2025 .

It ’s certainly an exciting time for nuclear fusion , with some telling forward motion being made in the past twelvemonth . This video recording footage serves as a reminder that apart from being potentially good , fusion nuclear reactor just look frickin ’ cool too . See you in the futurity .