Seven international parties involved in an experimental nuclear fusion reactor project have initialled a 10bn-euro (£6.8bn) agreement on the plan.
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) will be the most expensive joint scientific project after the International Space Station.
Wednesday's agreement in Brussels gives the go-ahead for practical work on the project to start.
Fusion taps energy from reactions like those that power the Sun.
The seven-party consortium, which includes the European Union, the US, Japan, China, Russia and others, agreed last year to build Iter in Cadarache, in the southern French region of Provence.
Cleaner energy
The parties say fusion will lead to a cheaper, safer, cleaner and endless energy resource in the years ahead. {BBC News}
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