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Fusion: The quest to recreate the Sun’s power on Earth

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Cadarache: In the dusty highlands of Provence in southern France, workers have excavated a vast rectangular pit 17 metres (56 feet) down into the unforgiving rocks. From my raised vantage point, I can see bright yellow mechanical diggers and trucks buzzing around the edge of the pit, looking toy-like in the huge construction site. Above us, the fireball Sun dries the air at an unrelenting 37C.



These are embryonic stages to what is perhaps humankind's most ambitious scientific and engineering project: to replicate the Sun here on Earth.



When construction is complete, the pit will host a 73-metre-high machine (240 feet) that will attempt to create boundless energy by smashing hydrogen nuclei together, in much the same way as stars like our Sun do. Physicists have dreamed of being able to produce cheap, safe and plentiful energy through atomic fusion since the 1950s. Around the world, researchers continue to experiment with creating fusion energy using various methods. But as people within the field have said the dream has always been 30 years away from realisation.



Full article: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120810-the-quest-to-recreate-the-sun

Some history: http://www.iter.org/sci/beyonditer

ITER site: http://www.iter.org/

IAEA site: http://www.iaea.org/





I find the concept of nuclear fusion rather intriguing. It's not exactly infinite energy, but it's pretty much the next best thing. (Especially considering that infinite energy is impossible unless there're infinite parallel universes that could be tapped...)

So anyone think it'll ever (within a century or so) amount to anything?
 
I doubt we'll ever see it in any kind of practical application in our lifetime. But I could be wrong, after all they already got it as far as no energy loss, so who knows...
 
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