Is fusion power really viable? (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Alasdair Cross
Costing the Earth


2010 is a big year for nuclear fusion but experts fear that a lack of fuel could push the dream of cheap, safe, clean and limitless energy far into the future.

As fossil fuels run dry and increasingly desperate attempts are made to control carbon emissions, the seductive promise of fusion energy has attracted billions of pounds of international funding.
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A laser at the National Ignition Facility in California will fuse together pairs of hydrogen nuclei, releasing high energy neutrons that should, for the first time, produce more power than the laser itself has put in.

As Professor Mike Dunne, head of Europe's laser fusion project says, "The first credible attempt is now just a few months away after 50 years of trying. Incredibly exciting times."
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That still leaves the fundamental problem with fusion - the fuel supply.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8547273.stm

[exboyfil]

1. A really good article in a recent Scientific American

paints a bleak picture regarding nuclear fusion. The engineering considerations make it unviable in my opinion. Maybe we will get a Deus Ex Machina in technology, but generating the pressures necessary to keep a reaction going appears unobtainable with present technology.