THE decades-long effort to build a nuclear fusion reactor has received a
major boost. In experiments at the US National Fusion Facility in San Diego,
researchers have quadrupled the rate of fusion in superhot deuterium gas.
Fusion reactors aim to reproduce the Sun’s power source, but the problem is
containing the hot plasma. The San Diego team achieved more stable containment
and higher pressure by carefully manipulating the magnetic fields that control
the spinning plasma. This brings us a step closer to a commercial reactor that
could provide enormous amounts of energy with hardly any pollution or waste.
The team,…
