Will Fusion Energy Ever Come Together?
It’s the poetry of fusion that draws us in. There in the heart of a star, in the welter of plasma, we find creation. In mindboggling heat and pressure, hydrogen atoms crash together and fuse to become helium, and the process shines light into a dark universe. Who wouldn’t be charmed when Carl Sagan reverently describes how fusion makes “the stars turn on”? And who can resist the audacious idea of creating a miniature sun here on Earth, and using nuclear fusion reactors to make human civilization shine brighter?
Perhaps you heard the recently from the National Ignition Facility (NIF), the $3 billion fusion experiment in California. Scientists announced that
