Nowadays few businesses would invest in conventional nuclear power stations. In the US subsidies of 100%, or more, fail to attract private investment for a nuclear fission power station, the classic form of nuclear energy. There are good economic reasons why this is so aside from the strong emotional stigma. There is another form of nuclear energy, thermonuclear fusion, the one that powers the stars. Fusion, the sticking together of high energy light atoms such as hydrogen, is a nuclear reaction distinct from fission, where heavy atoms, such as uranium, break apart even at room temperature. Fusion energy production has been pursued since the WWII years in excellent national labs and universities all over the world, but it has so far resisted a clear indication of its potential. What’s magnetic confinement fusion There are two ways to burn hot nuclear fusion fuel: make it react very quickly before the […]