Boris Johnson has announced the funding of the world’s first nuclear fusion plant, which could power entire towns without creating greenhouse gases or radioactive waste.

The Government will spend £220 million on the project, which it hopes will play a key role in reducing the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.

Nuclear power currently comes from the fission process.

Fusion power is a zero-carbon, combustion-free source of energy that generates electricity using hydrogen.

It is the technology behind the hydrogen bomb, but scientists have been unable to produce a reactor capable of harnessing fusion power in a viable manner.