WORCESTER, Mass. - A major breakthrough in clean energy was announced this week, as for the first time ever, scientists created a fusion energy source with the ability to produce more energy than it uses.

It's the same type of nuclear fusion that powers the sun and stars. Despite the milestone, we're still more than a decade away from it being used commercially. 

Worcester Polytechnic Institute associate professor William McCarthy said this type of energy is also being studied in Massachusetts. 

"You can even see here in Massachusetts with the Commonwealth Fusion Systems associated with MIT," McCarthy said. "They are doing some really great work and they are hoping to achieve a similar results within a couple of years time with a different reactor that would probably scale a little more favorably to an actually commercializable fusion reactor."

To answer the big question of when it will be available for commercial use, McCarthy said it still needs to overcome some engineering challenges before that can happen.