THE NEW AGE OF FUSION
Flick through any collection of popular science magazines from the last 50 years and the chances are that you will encounter a feature about nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion is the process of joining lightweight atoms together to release energy; it is the reason the Sun and the rest of the stars shine, and recreating that process on Earth promises an abundant form of low-carbon energy.
As you look through the archival material, keep an eye open for when the pundits think fusion might arrive. It’s an old joke that whatever the decade of the publication, fusion has always been “about 20 years away”. Yet despite five decades of effort, no fusion plant can yet produce more energy than it takes to start the reaction.
But don’t let that bare fact make you think that fusion is as far away as ever. There has been a sea change recently that has shrunk the 20-year horizon to a mere decade away. For a start, there has been an increase in our understanding of the science of fusion. Second, there has been an undoubted set of technological breakthroughs. But it is the
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