PULLMAN, Wash -- Scientists at Washington State University say they’re one step closer to capturing antimatter.

It sounds like something out of a science fiction movie, but they say the technology they’re developing could make its way into everyday life.

“We’ve redone all the equations and there’s nothing to say this isn’t possible,” said Kelvin Lynn, PhD.

The scientists wanted to find a way to store particles called positrons, a form of antimatter.

Positrons aren’t stored very practically, so the solution was to shrink that down.

“You can fit about 10 million of them in a can,” said Marc Weber, PhD.

That way it uses a lot less power.  The current method takes a whole power plan; their method would take a few nine volt batteries.

 More: Technology | Green Headlines

 They’ve proven this could work and that they could possibly make the world’s most powerful gas tank

That’s because if you make a positron explode, you get pure energy and no waste.  Make an engine out of that and there wouldn’t be an exhaust pipe.

Lynn and Weber say there are also medical applications and industrial uses to being able to bottle positrons.  They say it’s like nuclear technology without the radiation, and in a few years they hope to have the power in a little can.

There are also military aspects to this; antimatter equal in size to a few grains of sand has the same energy as the space shuttle.