Unlimited, clean energy is a step closer to reality

Nuclear fusion, as the joke goes, is the energy source of the future and always will be. In theory, the technology offers a virtually limitless supply of energy for electric generation with virtually no carbon footprint or waste products. Harnessing this immense potential and commercializing it on a large scale is quite another matter and success even in the lab has been elusive.Last month, 60 years of research finally culminated in a breakthrough at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory that not only proved the concept but will prime the pump for the flow of private capital necessary to bring the promise to fruition. For the first time, a fusion reaction produced more energy than it consumed, an achievement known as ignition. And while large-scale deployment of fusion generation remains far in the future, the timeline just got much…

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