Lockheed Martin reported a major breakthrough in research on compact, modular, and scalable nuclear fusion reactors this week, and estimates that as soon as ten years from now it may have a production unit ready for market.

Fusion is the Brazil of energy: full of promise, but whose day in the sun is perpetually 30 years away. However, a recent breakthrough at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has reignited hopes for the world’s grandest energy pipe dream.

Researchers at California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) made huge progress in the quest for energy’s holy grail in the journal Nature yesterday, revealing that a fusion reaction produced more energy than it required last fall. Take that, Malthus.