Nuclear Fusion Development

Archive Report

New Optimism About Fusion

Increased Funding for Fusion Research

Nuclear fusion, the energy source of the sun and other stars, could provide the Earth with a virtually unlimited energy supply — if it can be harnessed effectively and economically. Since the beginning of fusion research three decades ago, it often has seemed that the harder scientists worked, the further away a viable fusion technology appeared. Pleading for time, fusion researchers would tell impatient critics that their work was the most challenging scientific program ever undertaken. But such claims only strengthened the impression that this was one confrontation between nature and man that nature was going to win.

In recent years, however, fusion researchers have shown a marked optimism. Experts in the field still are careful to point ...

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