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Massive scientific efforts have not given us satisfactory results. May be because they have been “massive“. My university specialty was plasma fusion. I met several Russian proffesors working in this field 20 years ago. Many of them have been telling that efforts have been “massive” but not focused. Many good ideas related to control and Google style mathematic methods of magnetic field control have been abandoned. And finally all project was simply abandoned by many reasons. The problem remains with ITER project. I am suspicions that so lengthy and vast project will be out of focused management control. The ITER project time schedule is defined for coming 50 years. “Manhattan project” was 20 times faster. My proposition would be that US government should afford serial of “Manhattan” style fast projects with considerable reward promise for winners.

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Hmm,hmm, nuclear fusion. Clean? Economical? The way to go energy-wise? How about what do you do with all the radioactive byproducts??? Not putting those in my back yard.

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I believed I have solved the fusion problem- I proved my 5 year ideology last april 2007 by hand building my own one million volt tesla coil to prove it- i spent ever day since then trying to stimulate others to PLEASE replicate to verify- i have been ridiculed and ignored since- I believe when our economy is destroyed - you will listen- all my information and experiments/technical writings are found at my website of noblefuse.com sincerely solomon azar

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ITER will never work - the only real technology with a chance to provide fusion power economically (and better than any other alternative energy) is Polywell. http://www.polywellnuclea rfusion.com http://www.askmar.com/Fus ion.html http://www.emc2fusion.org /

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It's time to invest big-time in making Fusion. If the world can find $300 billion for fix the financial mess caused by the housing fraud transactions, we should easily do likewise on providing new sources for power for the 21st century. Fusion, solar, and wind need a sustained 50 year investment of more than 1 trillion dollars to get us where we need to be worldwide. WE did it for the internet; likewise let's do for sustainable safe energy sources.

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The United States needs to put more money into research in this field. It is a valuable long-term option for the World.

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Why is it that engineers today are not talking about fission power? Perhaps I am simply uneducated on the process, but it seems that fission as proved a bountiful source of energy that we have a relatively strong grasp on as a worldwide society. If I have my information correct, the majorit of the power in France comes from nuclear reactors that run on fission reactions. An important aspect of engineering then, should be to focus on dealing with the waste from fission reactions, rather than abandoning the process altogether, especially when we are in a time where we need cheap, accessible power for the masses, and both fusion and solar seem to be too far off to provide that solution.

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ITER will never work. ICF fusion will not work. You should be investigating the research being done on internal electrostatic confinement fusion devices, namely, the polywell. 17 years of funding by the Navy into this device has already occured and in 2006, the device's principal investigator came out and stated that he had created a machine that could (with research) produce non-radioactive fusion energy from the Proton-Boron11 reaction. PB11 runs at a higher energy, something that could never be attained in the ITER machine, They have to use DD or DT a poor mans radioactive fuel. The polywell focuses all the ions in the center, the same way established ion focusers work (University of wisconsin-madison research). The difference is the polywell doesn't use metal cages, and so increases efficency 100 fold. The work even fits in with Dr. Todd Rider's 1994 MIT thesis on non-equalibrium plasa. Dr. Rider claimed that no non-equalibrium plasma device would ever work except when electrons re-circulate. Dr. Bussard discovered this fact, and it was the Eurka! moment of polywell research.

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I have been reading about nuclear fusion as an energy source since I was 14 years old. I am now a 47 year old Electrical Engineer and I am still just as enthusiastic and eager to find out when the first viable fusion reaction in which there is a net energy gain is demonstrated. I was wondering if there had been any progress in using non-linear control algorithms such as neural net or neuro-fuzzy systems to control the non-linear/stochastic turbulence of the deuterium-tritium plasma? Also are DC magnetic fields used, or have AC ones been tried? Possibly using a similar principle to how a synchrotron works? Possibly exploiting the principle of self-organising systems?

"It is so strange to me that everyone here seems to have an opinion that differs from a large group of scientists and engineers who are experts on the subject." 

It is so strange to me that everyone here seems to have an opinion that differs from a large group of scientists and engineers who are experts on the subject. I would like to think that in the 50 years since fusion research started, we have been able to effectively narrow down our effors to the best designs which have a high probability of success. Admittedly, because of the youth of the field, many designs that have yet to be imagined will likely be significantly more efficient and cheaper, but having the tokamek as the start of the fusion energy industry is something that should not be put down until it is fully investigated. Indeed, one must wonder why, if so many other superior reactor designs exist, more effort has not been put into utilising them more completely. I believe that ITER has, at the current moment, the highest chance of successfully achieving the desired Q value of 10, i.e., returning tens times the amount of energy that is put into the system. Shooting down such a massive project so soon seems a tad immature. And not attempting something because it is so monumental in terms of the amount of work required would be a shame, as the scope and impact of its success cannot be overestimated.

"I've been following fusion research for some time, and have grown convinced that our best chance for practical fusion energy is the "polywell" approach..." 

I've been following fusion research for some time, and have grown convinced that our best chance for practical fusion energy is the "polywell" approach pioneered by Dr. Robert Bussard. It neatly sidesteps many of the problems that make conventional approaches to fusion so difficult. Dr. Bussard passed away recently, but the research is being carefully replicated and continued even now. I encourage anyone with an interest in fusion to google "polywell fusion," follow the links, and learn all you can about this potential breakthrough.

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The ITER approach will not provide economical fusion power for decades, if ever. I would much rather see funding spread around to many small scale alternative fusion experiments that may not work, but at least they hold the promise of economical fusion power.

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In 1977 when I proposed using my injection reactor to provide the charged particles needed to turn hydrogen gas into heavy hydrogen, heat the gas, and produce electromagnetic fields to compress the gas to fuse it by collapsing around the mass, I thought that by now we would have fusion power. Maybe we need to consider other elements to fuse into heavier elements and liberate energy instead of just hydrogen. My reactor design hasn't changed much in the last 30 years. Since hydrogen bombs need a fission trigger to initiate the reaction, maybe fusion reactors also need a fission trigger to initiate the reaction. A new twist on my reactor would be the continuous injection system that would inject any type of material that would be irradiated, superheated, fused into heavier elements, and energy would be liberated and cycled trough the cyclotron. Once the material becomes too cool to produce steam efficiently, it would either be vented or placed in waste storage. Imagine how many lifetimes a day's worth of garbage could generate for a city using the continuous injection system. On a larger scale, we may have to create our own mini suns out in space to produce both fusion energy and solar energy.

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Before the fusion became a reality for everyone, we must first use all the resources that nature offers in its simplest form, for example the sun, air and water. The organizations that work for it should take seriously monetary and environmental cost.

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I'm suprised and disappointed that fusion research is so "monolithic" - that all the funding is going into only one possible - and very expensive - approach: the tokamak. There are alternative approaches, such as "polywell" and "dense plasma focus", which could potentially lead to fusion energy much sooner and for a _much_ smaller investment than the tokamak approach.

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Fusion will become practical when attasecond lazers achive high power.

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One big hole in which money is dumped. besides my back yard is too small.

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With fusion, all other options become far more feasible as we see that regardless of whatever barrier is preventing us from reaching our goals, without abundant and affordable (and safe)energy, the rest are moot. ITER while exciting as a prime example of a big engineering project and as a tool with which to explore the nature of matter and energy, seems like it will be a very long time before it's no longer a centralized system. While better than shivering in the dark, a centralized energy production/distribution system leaves me feeling too much at the mercy of some particularly non-mercifull types for whom bottom line runs over everyone's toes but their own. I am encouraged by the recent developements in Inertial Electrostatic Confinement as proposed by the the recently departed Dr. Robert Boussard whose concepts and initial experimental results have been widely distributed as a result of its being recorded and distributed by GoogleVideo.

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It is important that all Energy Research be measured against expected value: The probability of success / failure combined with the payoff / cost of the research investment. There are many other conceptual methods of extracting energy from plasmas vastly different from the thermally isotrophic plasmas represented by ITER and the other Tokamaks. Some of these low probability but high expected value methods should be researched in parallel with ITER.

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Developing nuclear fusion will be one of the greatest achievements in human history. The problem is that a lot of promising fusion projects get underfunded or even worse, just no funding at all. If we really want to get fusion to power our lives, then we shouldn't put all our eggs in one basket.

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The unlimited, virtually free, and clean energy that would come from nuclear fusion would make it easy to solve many of these other problems. We already know the processes, but the cost of energy prevents us from using them to solve the problems. In addition, fusion would eliminate many of the world’s conflicts by removing the importance of scarce resources that fuel them. The prosperity that fusion enables would also bring the third world into a new era. Poor nations would be able to provide the kind of life their people can only dream of today. Fusion energy would revolutionize our lives in so many ways, that the world will be challenged to reinvent many institutions. None of the other challenges would have such a far-ranging effect. The current state of research is still seeking the answers to difficult problems, but eventually the questions will be answered and fusion energy will be a reality. Like the discovery of fire, the spread of agriculture, or the industrial revolution, viable energy from fusion will begin a new age of mankind. One with opportunities we can't imagine.

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I think that ultimately energy is the answer to all of life's important issues - It is the foundation of existence. If you have a secure sustainable supply of energy (especially the same stable form that the universe uses in each and every star - tested platforms, people!) then everything else you may want to do will be made that much easier. With our unstable energy needs out of the way, our environmental, economic, health and leisure/education/enterta inment needs can be met with more confidence and focus.

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A clean, safe and cheap energy source is vital to the long term sustainability of our planet. Finding a solution to the problems of fusion power will overcome a lot of the problems indicated in the other options.

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Why are the efforts centered in France with the Japanese helping has United State's scientific infrastructure declined so much that we are not able to lead in this field?

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ITER is not the only possibility for fusion, as others have mentioned. Unfortunately, it has become a budget defense program. Other mechanisms need to be explored, including inertial electrostatic confinement and colliding beam, among others.

"A better alternative is the proven and relatively simple fusion reaction using Helium 3. " 

ITER is a waste of time and money. It is far to complicated and probably impossible to achieve on earth given its gravity component. 80% of the energy produced is neutrons creating more radioactive material and dust. A better alternative is the proven and relatively simple fusion reaction using Helium 3. Contrary to popular belief it's why we are going back to the moon. This type reactor and securing the fuel in an ecomomical manner should be our highest priority as earthlings. Shame on the authors for highlighting only one fusion alternative and not even mentioning this highly attractive alternative. I understand this is an engineering site and that ITER provides jobs for you bozos but there is a better way and you know it.

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I certainly see fusion in some form as the answer. We need a cheap (preferably free) source of energy. Most other world problems can be solved once that is done. The only problems remaining would be to find work for those who are in the oil industry - easy to solve. I can't help think that the current ITER reactor is not the answer but makes for a good big science project and I fear that too many are jumping on that bandwagon. The late Dr. Bussard had an approach using electrostatic inertial confinment that deserves serious attention. The ITER is extremily complex and probably will never develope into a practical low cost source of energy. Dr. Bussard's approach has simplicity on it side which equals low cost and reliability. Bob Sanborn

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Vulvox nanobiotechnology corporation is working on super-materials that will enable lighter reactor structures that will result in less radioactive waste than alternative materials that will require thicker reactor walls and structures.

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Fusion holds the promise of a steady energy supply that is not linked to atmospheric conditions or weather. Ground-based solar sytems depend on clear skies. A two year disruption from volcanic acitivity or extreme pollution (such as from meteor impact) could have catastrophic repercussions for a solar grid. Ideally, fusion also lends itself to unusual applicaitons such as underground or underwater habitation. The process further serves interstellar exploration including travel, communidation and remote settlements. Mature fusion technology could mean infinite energy resources that adapt readily from nano to mega systems. Now, if we can only do this without annihilating ourselves.

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The availability of an "unlimited" supply of clean power will be the most important element in any program to improve the worldwide human condition. It will reduce greenhouse emissions and thus allow the planet to return to it's natural cycle times. It will power the reverse osmosis devices that will relieve the potable and irrigation water shortages. It will power the leveling of living standards and thus reduce the social pressures that result from haves/have nots. Unfortunately it will not forestall ignorance and intolerance but one can always hope.

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I thought this was a page about fusion, but apparently it's just about ITER. There are other promising possibilities for achieving fusion, such as inertial confinement and fusors.

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Fusion is incredibly important but is not synonymous with magnetic plasma confinement. Unless I missed something, no one has a clue on how to describe magnetohydrodynamics of plasma adequately. Rather like Richard Feynman said about turbulence. Unfortunately, we are building the ITER. Again the lack of great ideas is being countered with more money. Perhaps if a fusion physicist or two admitted that Tokamaks are not going to take us there, we might spend some energy on more promising things.

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Please correct electrically charge to charged While other approaches to fusion are being studied, the most advanced involves using magnetic forces to hold the fusion ingredients together. ITER will use this magnetic confinement method in a device known as a tokamak, where the fuels are injected into and confined in a vacuum chamber and heated to temperatures exceeding 100 million degrees. Under those conditions the fusion fuels become a gas-like form of electrically charge matter known as a plasma. (Its electric charge is what allows confinement by magnetic forces.) ITER will test the ability of magnetic confinement to hold the plasma in place at high-enough temperatures and density for a long-enough time for the fusion reaction to take place. Actually we need fusion, but I think ITER as approached is non-scalable, and like a hole into which money is poured. Bussard's approach needs to be developed and his team reassembled and reinforced. Of the alternatives the tokamak approach is a non-scalable. Central Point regions make sense, not toroids. CO2 needs to be removed, and that is going to require non CO2 energy sources. However, the seriousness is not realized. The criminal nature of what the tobacco companies did pales when compared to the criminal actions of the Bush-Chaney-Big Carbon connection hooked with the military-industrial comples -- which involves the rape of the American treasury for oil, deaths of about a million people over a few years, and active attempts to suppress and delay actions that are needed. Legislation to criminalize these actions, and quick prosecution of these miscreants from the financial through the government malefactors should be done to make clear and memorable examples of social justice. If we want to save enough life to proceed along a natural path, we are going to have to 'engineer' some laws of behavior. With enough energy, and true control of the CO2 we can approach weather and climate control. But we need the energy. Solar should be number one, but portable fusion is what we take to do the quick jobs and solar system explorations. Power will eventually be mostly from direct solar conversion, and eventually will supply a global grid. Population control must be accomplished, and equity in the distribution of resources will have to occur -- not the current system.

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Fusion is definitely the way to go. Safe, clean, powerful enough to provide all of the energy needs of earth, and abundant enough to do it for a long time. ITER may be the most advanced at this point, but many doubt it will ever work, at least in the next 30 years. Other alternatives are out there, and the most advanced of those is "Focus Fusion". I think the government should be funding alternatives as well as ITER. Why put all your eggs in one expensive basket?

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we should develop fusion to the extreme for it is the main source of energy

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The confidence of the ITER team makes this project the most promising contender in the energy race. If fusion can be sustained in this test, ingenuity and process innovations can undoubtedly bring this technology market. Fusion is clean and safe and offers so much to the world. All participants should fully fund the ITER project, and its effort should be redoubled.

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Based on the difficulties of controlled fusion from the experiences of more than half a century of very limited progress so far, fusion is a long shot, and at best will take a long time. It is in the very basic research stage, which is more appropriate for basic scientific research than for engineering implementation. While basic research of fusion should go on, of course, it is more in the reign of dreaming than practical reality until some breakthrough in basic research is demonstrated. It can give false promises, that can detract efforts in more immediate and more practical alternative energy areas such solar, which is working already to a fair extend, and battery driven electric cars, which is beginning to work like the Altair Nano battery for all electric cars, and other batteries that are already working in commercial hybrid cars.

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When I was in high school (more than 45 years ago) I was told that fusion power was still 20 years in the future. Apparently it still is. Nevertheless, the development of fusion power would allow us to supercede not only any present-day energy "crisis", but many political and economic problems as well. Imagine a world not dependent on burning fossil fuels. There would be no nuclear waste issue. De-salination plants could easily solve the water problem. With abundant, cheap energy, the power of the human intellect to create prosperity and freedom could be fully unleashed. This should be on a priority higher than any of the others.

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It is high time this country developed a comprehensive Energy Policy and a critical element of this policy must be a Manhattan Project for a Fusion Reactor. The potential for such a reactor to provide the world with a clean and practically infinate energy source is monumental. Further, the more we reduce the funds sent to those countries that supply the world with oil, the less potential there is for those funds to fall into the hands of those who wish to do harm to the US and all other democratically based countries in the world. We could kill so many birds with one stone if we were able to implement a viable, efficient fusion reactor that the cost of not doing so multiplies exponentially every day.

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There are many doubts about tokamak fusion, especially the Cadarache project. Some scientists (like J.-Pierre PETIT) consider that we should skip that stage using electrohydrodynamics, allowing best fusion reactions, which are only possible at 2 millions of degrees-centigrades and above (see http://www.bruchenvironne ment.org/gde_ressour_nucl eaire2.html).

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Harnessing Fusion to provide electricity is most important. With the cost of converting solar or wind power to electrical energy and with the battery cost and life time, fusion would be the answer. I never have feared nuclear energy. If we had built power plants before we did a bomb we would be 50 or more years ahead in clean power generation.

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I live in an earthquake zone, but if the engineering can mitigate the risks of energy supply disruption and environmental contamination, why not live with fusion in my backyard. The lure of limitless cheap energy without geopolitical supply constraints is intriguing.

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First you have to create a Miniture Blackhole using the reverse centrifical force method which you contain using Magnetic energy also created by super rotation. then using electro magnetic pulses you create the area for the creation of the Plasma.... Once you have the Plasma you interject it into the Mini black hole and watch for a stable sustained reaction. The rest is easy... Simply havest magntisum to create electricity. and feed Plasma as needed.... Any questions? we should be able to do this now... our computers are fast enough to keep up with the calculations for managing the electromagnetic containment/sustaining Pulses.

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I believe the successful engineering of fusion energy plants is the most important of the 14 grand challenges selected as targets for our engineers. I, also, think it is one of the most difficult and can understand its ranking as #2 behind "making solar energy affordable" in the article in the Financial Times on February 16,2008. Thank you in advance for using your talents to help to enhance the life of people on and off our planet. Bill Zollo

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It is my opinion that Fusion research is imperative for the future of mankind. I do believe however that the different ways in achieving Fusion, i.e. Tokomaks, Stellarators, Electrostatic confinement, lasers etc. also require continued research as these methods could prove viable in other areas of power generation. So while Tokomaks or Stellarators maybe ideal for land based generation, other concepts may be better suited to ship based and or space based operations. Electrostatic based Fusion may just be what is needed to make Single Stage to Orbit flight as economical as conventional air flight. This maybe a long term view but I feel is well worth keeping in mind.

" I think fusion energy is our best hope for the future. " 

I think fusion energy is our best hope for the future. Reducing the worlds dependance on oil will benefit us all, especially our children. A cheaper electricity source takes advantage of the existing infrastructures throughout the world and would be the easiest to extend to undeveloped areas. The undertaking seems to be enormous from a laymans standpoint. Maybe the best way would be some type of international endeavor like the space station or the collider project. I am not sure what international community "vehicle" twould be best for this. The more international cooperation the better the chances of success and the easier it will be to propogate the results.

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Use Helium3 & Deuterium, Result is Helium4 & Hydrogen1 AND Electrical Energy. There are NO Free Neutrons. Since BOTH resulting Fusion products are charged they can be steered into a particle accelerator used in reverse & go straight to electricity. MUCH More efficient & no radioactive products. No wasteful steam turbines that LOSE 60% of the energy are required.

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I just finished reading the book Global Warming Can Be Conquered by Laurence O. Williams. It explores the methods for making fusion a reality and outlines a detailed plan for creating a hydrogen fueled society. The missing ingredients for making this a reality, it seems, are serious, universal scientific collaboration and the willingness to fully fund such a project. Wasting tax dollars on schemes such as corn ethanol production is, for lack of a better word, stupid.

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This project needs to be the world's #1 priority the time line described in the article is too long to be meaningful. The enormity of the engineering challenge to build sufficient numbers of functional fusion powered generators in time to make a useful contribution to the coming century's energy demands dictates that the technology be mainstream by the mid 2030 at the latest - a whole lot more money and effort needs to go into this program. This is the only significant source of energy available to replace hydrocarbons. Great site!

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I feel that achieving the goals set for nuclear fusion will Inevitably help to eliviate possible nuclear threats. Replacing fossil burning fuels with fusion power will break the CO2 and other toxic emmisions causing pollution, acid rain, and put a stop to the green house effect, thereby benefiting the entire earths environment and all life on it. As an added bonus, I predict that this research will also help advance discoveries and uncover better and more efficient technologies to distribute the energy from Fusion thoughout the world. Eventually these combined technologies and discoveries will advance to the point where they may possibly eliminate the need for our constantly expanding and already overloaded power grids. In turn, reverting these expansions back to thier natural state will benifit man and ecology alike. Perhaps instead of cell towers looking like trees, we may see high tension power grids to looking the same. :)