The Quest for Fusion Energy

Abstract

A line from a song in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Sound of Music (with a slight change) encapsulates much of the essence of the now near half-century quest for fusion energy: How do you hold a sunbeam in your hand? Indeed, from its very beginning fusion research both captured the imagination of researchers and daunted them with its difficulty. More than 40 years later, fusion research finds itself in great peril and not for justifiable reasons. Sound of Music has a happy ending after peril; fusion may not if present trends continue. The seeds of the fusion quest were planted by astrophysicists in the 1930s. They provided the explanation—nuclear fusion—for the seemingly inexhaustible source of heat radiated by the Sun and the stars. That understanding, coupled with the discernment of an essentially limitless source of fusion fuel on Earth—heavy hydrogen in the waters of the ocean—set the stage. Though the search was delayed ...