In the suburbs of Vancouver, a team is working on what they think is humanity's best chance at clean, unlimited power, something we desperately need. A startup called General Fusion is building a nuclear fusion reactor and, if they succeed, it could mean the end of the fossil fuel era. Instead, we'd get our power from the same process that occurs in stars—at least, that's the dream.

Because of climate change, nuclear power—which produces no greenhouse gases—is looking like more attractive. But the big problem is what to do with the radioactive waste left behind. Nuclear fusion promises to solve the problems of traditional fission power. Its fuel is abundant (seawater!), and it has a harmless helium byproduct. But until recently, the challenges of fusion seemed insurmountable. Now, big name investors like Jeff Bezos are lending a hand to General Fusion, which is attempting a whole new approach.

Unlike the nuclear fission that powers conventional reactors today, in which atoms are split apart, fusion power is generated when you smoosh two smaller atoms into a larger one inside a containment device. The math behind fusion says this reaction has to result in the loss of a bit of mass and, well, due to that little equation E=mc2, that mass turns into a lot of energy. Like, a ton.