SAN FRANCISCO: Since the dawn of the Nuclear Age, scientists have sought to harness the fundamental process of fusion, which fires the sun and creates the heat necessary for life on Earth.

Its promises are so fantastic as to seem like science fiction: nearly boundless energy, far less waste than current nuclear power, and a recipe that requires readily available elements. So, for decades, the work surrounding this most alluring and elusive quest has been followed with an interest usually reserved only for Mr. Wizard or Martian rocks named Yogi.

Now, researchers claim they may have achieved fusion in miniature, triggering the reaction that stokes the sun’s furnace in a Tennessee crucible little bigger than a coffee cup. Instead of jubilation, though, a wary scientific world has responded with skepticism, punctuated only by the slightest expectation of hope.

Given the enormity of the findings and the fact that similar claims have been proven wrong in the past, that’s hardly surprising. Yet, if the findings are correct, they surely represent a substantial scientific discovery. They would revolutionize not only how we study fusion reactions but also, possibly, how the future world produces energy.

Even if it is proven false, though, the research still sheds light on the very nature of modern science. Usually, these tests go on in cloistered labs, far from public notice. But this time, with an is issue of such significance — and controversy — they are very much in the open.

The claim is that scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, for an instant, created a star in a jar. Unlike today’s nuclear reactors, which take heavy, rare elements such as uranium and split them in a process called fission, the fusion at work in stars “fuses” hydrogen together under immense pressure.

While the scientists who conducted the experiment do not insist that fusion occurred, they suggest that it was likely, given the presence of tritium.

The findings won’t send engineers scurrying to build new reactors, though. To take the next step, scientists must find a way to make the process self-sustaining rather than a fleeting phenomenon. —Dawn/The Christian Science Monitor News Service.