Ah, nuclear fusion. That holy grail of clean energy. For decades, its potential as a near-limitless source of totally green, emissions-free, radioactive nuclear waste-free power has been touted as the next frontier of energy with the potential to save the planet. But it has also become a bit of a joke, as we have never gotten anywhere close to making commercial fusion a reality despite all the pie-in-the-sky rhetoric. Until now. Maybe. The Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plasma Liner Experiment (PLX) has a completely new approach to nuclear fusion that has to potential to finally bring the stuff of science fiction down to Earth–with an approach ripped right from science fiction, ironically enough. The futuristic project aims to achieve commercial nuclear fusion with the help of 36 plasma guns. “PLX, if it works, will combine two existing methods of slamming single-proton hydrogen atoms together to form two-proton helium atoms. […]