EVEN Boris Johnson has got in on the act. UK scientists were on the verge of creating commercially viable miniature nuclear fusion reactors for export, the prime minister told his party faithful last year, announcing a 拢200 million funding boost, adding: 鈥淚 know they have been on the verge for some time. It is a pretty spacious kind of verge.鈥�
Another variant of that gag appears in our survey of recent developments in the field (see page 鈥淲hy cracking nuclear fusion will depend on artificial intelligence鈥�). Nuclear fusion鈥檚 reputation as a technology whose time never quite arrives precedes it, often by decades. And not without reason. JET-EUROfusion, the UK-based collaboration to which the prime minister was referring, traces its origins to the then European Community鈥檚 decision to fast-track fusion research in 1971. ITER, the grand international fusion project initiated in 1988, won鈥檛 actually be doing fusion until the mid-2030s.
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Harnessing the reaction that powers the sun is clearly hard. But while fusion鈥檚 past invites scepticism, its present gives grounds for renewed optimism.
The UK government announcement, though welcome, may have had more to do with signalling a continued commitment to big international science post-Brexit. More significant is the private money now flowing into fusion. That is both a symptom and a cause of a blossoming of fusion projects besides the established players. Meanwhile, as we report, computational developments, not least the application of artificial intelligence to the problem of making fusion feasible, could be a game changer.
鈥淪uitably incentivised, human ingenuity has a habit of overcoming seemingly insuperable hurdles鈥�
If the science and the economics can be sorted, that leaves the politics, a perennial source of fusion鈥檚 woes. That seems to be changing. Covid-19 has brought a renewed focus on how we can operate more sustainably in a warming world. Among many pressing calls on public and private funds, developing the biggest source of clean energy we know of must surely have a great claim.
Suitably incentivised, human ingenuity has a habit of overcoming seemingly insuperable hurdles. The name ITER was chosen in part because it is Latin for 鈥渢he way鈥�. That ways to fusion exist isn鈥檛 in dispute 鈥� the question is whether we can finally find the will.
