ENDLESS energy with next to no radioactive waste? Fusion power will always
sound too good to be true. And yet after two years of gloom, the sun is shining
on the idea. In 1999, the US pulled out of the ambitious international project
known as ITER—designed to generate usable energy by squeezing atomic
nuclei together—claiming it had too many technical problems and cost too
much. But last month the President’s science adviser said the US should think
again. Why the change of heart? One reason is a spate of promising findings from
other fusion projects
(see “Here comes…
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