Britain is in prime position to commercially exploit this week’s nuclear fusion breakthrough

One of the most important stories of the year, certainly the one with the greatest potential, concerns the efforts to recreate nuclear fusion, the power source of the stars. American researchers say that for the first time they have produced more energy from the process than they have put in. It is a small but greatly encouraging breakthrough after decades of experimentation.

Although the latest development took place in California, Britain has been in the vanguard of this research since the Joint European Torus (JET) opened at Culham near Oxford in 1984.

Cynics will point out that the technical hurdles that need to be overcome are formidable, possibly insuperable. There have also been setbacks, as when two scientists in 1989 claimed to have discovered cold fusion only for their…