It's impossible. And what's more, it's improbable
This month offers a chance for America's fusion researchers to stay in the game
SOME say that a dollar spent on nuclear fusion is a dollar wasted. And many, many dollars have been spent on it, as physicists try to duplicate, in a controlled setting, the process by which the sun shines. Since 1951, America alone has devoted more than $17 billion (see chart) to working out how to fuse atomic nuclei so as to generate an inexhaustible supply of clean, safe power.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline "It's impossible. And what's more, it's improbable"
From the July 20th 2002 edition
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