Nuclear fusion is what powers our sun, and it could soon be what powers our refrigerators. Scientists have discovered how to use nuclear fusion as an efficient energy source. It’s a much safer form of energy than nuclear fusion, and it doesn’t produce greenhouse gases like burning fossil fuels.

The announcement came on December 13 and may affect the future drastically.

Countries around the world have been looking for ways to effectively use nuclear fusion to create energy since the 1960s. BBC cites that one of the reasons this took so long to develop was that fusing two of the same element is very difficult since they repel each other. The sun overcomes this with its high temperature, but scientists have recreated this with lasers.

More developments need to be made before nuclear fusion can be used commercially, according to CNN’s Ella Nilsen and René Marsh. The process is still very expensive and due to the fact that it will require even larger amounts of machinery to make this work on a larger scale, it will likely take decades before this power source is implemented into the electrical grid.

Even though it may take a long time for this new energy source to be effectively implemented, it has given many concerned civilians hope for the future. This could be the biggest step in stopping climate change the world has seen so far. If the proper resources are put into developing nuclear fusion on a wider scale then it is possible that we could drastically reduce climate change and prevent our planet from heating beyond control.