Okay. What is fusion? Here comes the nuclear physics.

Nuclear fusion, I had about 10 minutes on that.

But, while the fusion process has produced some power (16 million watts of it, to be specific), scientists have yet to create a self sustaining fusion burn. Indeed, unlike nuclear fission, which went from the laboratory to the power grid within two decades, fusion has proved a tough nut to crack.

In the fission reactions that nuclear power generation relies on today, heavy elements such as uranium break into smaller ones, while in nuclear fusion small elements such as hydrogen stick together and form heavier elements (helium). Both fission and fusion produce a lot of energy.

I think about World War II some of our great technologists then, some of our great physicists, studying nuclear fission and fusion just nuclear stuff.

France is now rushing to construct the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, (ITER), which is supposed to show that nuclear fusion can be used to power nuclear power stations. ITER is often presented as the long term solution to the problem of global warming, because nuclear fusion can provide an infinite and clean source of energy.

We are looking forward to joining the International Thermonuclear Energy Reactor project involving nuclear fusion, as a full partner.

Without nuclear fusion, future generations energy options will be severely limited creating a serious problem for developed and developing countries alike. Lev Artsimovich, the tokamak s inventor, said that fusion will be ready when society needs it.

But that's not really fusion power. That's just making some fusion happen.

In the longer term, some scientists view nuclear fusion as a potentially inexhaustible and emission free means to meet the world's energy needs.

Compiz Fusion Icon

The Fusion Myth

Some political leaders explain that nuclear fusion is at work in the sun, and that, thanks to ITER, we will harness it. They often add that, since fusion burns hydrogen, which can be found in seawater, it is an infinite source of energy.

Stars are basically nuclear fusion machines that self organize and self sustain themselves for billions of years, this order against the entropy of the world.

Brought down to earth, nuclear fusion a process fueled primarily by lithium and deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen), both of which are plentiful in seawater and in the earth s crust could provide a major source of low carbon energy. A fusion power station would use only around 450 kilograms of fuel annually, cause no atmospheric pollution, and carry no risk of accidents that could lead to radioactive contamination of the environment.

It turns out you can't do fusion on a table top despite all that cold fusion nonsense. Right?

We can do fusion. In the center of this device we made 16 megawatts of fusion power in 1997.

Physicist Steven Cowley is certain that nuclear fusion is the only truly sustainable solution to the fuel crisis. He explains why fusion will work and details the projects that he and many others have devoted their lives to, working against the clock to create a new source of energy.

Steven Cowley Fusion is energy's future

Fusion is very hard to do.

And that energy is what powers fusion.

Some discourage investment in nuclear fusion, claiming that, given how far from being market ready the technology is, our financial resources are better allocated to tried and tested energy options. The critics have a point given that fusion can be carried out only on a large scale, its investment requirements are considerable.

Nuclear power, both fission based and fusion based, is yet another possibility for vast, reliable, secure, and environmentally safe primary energy. Here, too, there are technological obstacles, but they seem surmountable.

And in fact we can make fusion happen.

Jazz fusion is a combination of rock and jazz.

And created the jinn from a fusion of fire.

And created the jinn from a fusion of fire.

Latvia considers the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty a very important element of the nuclear disarmament process.

There's scant chance of life there that's because there's been no time for the nuclear fusion in stars to make silicon and carbon and iron, the building blocks of planets and of life.

Manage Compiz Fusion and switch between the available window managers

It still remains an urgent challenge today to prevent a nuclear arms race and realize a nuclear free world through the nuclear disarmament process.

(a) The continuation of the nuclear disarmament process beyond START III

Moving the nuclear disarmament process ahead, and constantly reducing the role of nuclear weapons in international political affairs and national security policies, are two items of great significance for improving the international security environment and promoting the nuclear non proliferation process.

The key question is, When are we going to get fusion?

It's really been a long time since we've known about fusion.

Everybody can get it. That's why we want to do fusion.

It's the only machine in the world that's actually done fusion.

Assurances of the non use of nuclear weapons are important for the survival of non nuclear weapon States and for the promotion of the global nuclear disarmament process.

Convinced that the further reduction of non strategic nuclear weapons constitutes an integral part of the nuclear arms reduction and disarmament process,

Convinced that the further reduction of non strategic nuclear weapons constitutes an integral part of the nuclear arms reduction and disarmament process,

And there is one reaction that's probably the easiest fusion reaction to do.

And we have 30 million years worth of fusion fuel in sea water.

Because we want 30 million years worth of fusion power for the Earth.

Machines all over the world are reaching fusion temperatures and extending our technological capabilities. The ITER experiment, when it starts up in the early 2020s, will embody those advances, achieving the long awaited fusion burn and place us just one step away from the ultimate goal of getting fusion power on the grid in an affordable manner.

That nuclear fusion is a source of energy has been known since the invention of the hydrogen bomb. But its control is still a fundamental challenge for research institutes, not some minor technical difficulty that can be easily overcome.