Really Hot Fusion: Lawrence Livermore and Star Power

"Scientists plan to ignite tiny man-made star"
Telegraph.co.uk (December 27, 2008)

"It is science’s star experiment: an attempt to create an artificial sun on earth — and provide an answer to the world’s impending energy shortage.

"While it has seemed an impossible goal for nearly 100 years, scientists now believe that they are on brink of cracking one of the biggest problems in physics by harnessing the power of nuclear fusion, the reaction that burns at the heart of the sun.

"In the spring, a team will begin attempts to ignite a tiny man-made star inside a laboratory and trigger a thermonuclear reaction...."

This work is being done at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in California, and sounds like the best shot we've had so far at developing a working fusion reactor. This approach to fusion power involves zapping a fuel pellet with a laser.

What's really impressive about the Lawrence Livermore device is that it should produce ten times the energy it takes to start the fusion reaction.

Fusion power plants dotting the landscape won't be coming soon though. A working fusion power plant would need a laser that fires 10 times a second. The current model fires once every five hours.

Still, it's a start.