We will have to wait until the second half of the century for fusion reactors to start generating electricity, experts have announced. A new version of a European “road map” lays out the technological hurdles to be overcome if the processes powering the Sun are to be harnessed on Earth. The road map has been drawn up by scientists and engineers at EUROfusion. This is a consortium of European laboratories and universities that funds research on fusion energy. The original version of the road map, published in 2012, forecast that a demonstration fusion power plant known as DEMO could be operating in the early 2040s, in order to supply electricity to the grid by 2050. But in the updated version, yet to be released, DEMO would not start running until “early in the second half of the century”. A related document that provides more detail on DEMO’s design says […]