Energy from fusion: Not so far away

摘要

"Fusion energy as the source of electricity in our daily lives may be decades away, but progress made in the last decade has been substantial." So said International Atomic Energy Agency Deputy Director General Werner Burkart on the eve of the IAEA's 3rd Fusion Energy Conference (FEC), held October 11-16 in Daejeon, South Korea. In opening the meeting, Burkart told the 1200-plus participating fusion experts that although fusion remains a distant dream for the public at large, recent developments-notably at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Cadarache, France, and the United States' National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore Na-tional Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, Calif.-indicate that the dream is coming closer to reality.