Fusion Now!

The Focus Fusion Society is committed to bringing immediacy to humanity’s quest for Fusion. This means:

1. Fusion energy needs to move to the fast track of development. Currently, it’s just an under-funded footnote in the “Energy Crisis” conversation;
2. Barriers to the discovery of fusion need to be overcome. Many of these barriers are not technological so much as psychological; and
3. We all have a vital role in making Fusion happen. We don’t need to wait for the government or some energy giant out there to solve the fusion puzzle. It is our puzzle and we can do it now.

Fusion energy needs to move to the fast track of development.

For fusion to happen, it needs to become a top research priority.  Currently, it’s not, as noted here. One of the most important things we are doing with this website is raising awareness of focus fusion energy as a non-polluting alternative to other fuels.

Fusion also needs to become a big part of the Energy Crisis conversation. Currently, it is not.

According to most sources, the world today is caught in an escalating energy crisis. The crisis has profound economic, political and environmental impacts. If nothing changes, the conflicts, wars, environmental problems and poverty the world suffers now will get much worse.

In the face of this crisis, the right wing promotes nuclear fission reactors and downplays the security and long-term radioactive waste disposal issues that that implies. The left wing promotes renewables, even though they acknowledge that renewables won’t provide anywhere near the levels of energy that oil does. So, they say, we have to get ready for a low energy world - and all the conflict, regulation and inequality that that implies.

The Energy Crisis conversation is dominated by the nukes vs. renewables/low-energy-world debate. In all this, the possibility of unlimited energy derived from fusion is curiously missing. At best, fusion is just a tiny footnote in the “Energy Crisis” literature. And in that tiny footnote, they estimate that with conventional research efforts currently under way, we might have it in 50 years.

The principal barrier to the discovery of fusion is not a technological wall so much as a psychological one.

They say we might have fusion in 50 years. What’s the hold up?  What are the barriers to developing fusion? There are many, but the most difficult ones are not so much technological as they are psychological.  [click here for a look at barriers.]

These barriers exist in the general public as well as in the fusion research establishment. For researchers, it’s not just a lack of funding, but also the fact that most of the funding goes to research on the tokamak, a large, unwieldy and very expensive device that has consumed billions of dollars in research money and is still very far from achieving net energy. The estimates that “we will have fusion in ~50 years” are based on the progress of this conventional research. [For a detailed timeline of the 50 years, See the ITER website. You have to navigate to the timeline.  Click on “The ITER Project”, then in the left nav bar, the “Timeline” link shows a 10 year plan to construct something and “indicate that, if the ITER Organisation is established in 2006, the first plasma should be possible in ITER by the end of 2016.” Moving down in the left nav bar you can click on “Beyond ITER” which has the timeline for operational power-plants to come on line.  A very detailed breakdown of the 50 years required.  The direct link to the timeline is http://www.iter.org/gifs2/long-terms.jpg]

To better illustrate the blocks in the conventional approach to fusion, see this comparison of the approach taken by the conventional fusion researchers and Focus Fusion. The blocks revolve around three different elements:  Choice of Fuel, Choice of Reactor and Choice of Generator. 

You/I/We have a vital role in making Fusion happen.

Despite criticism of conventional fusion research as listed above, the US Government is narrowly focusing its research funding on it (click here for details). Results are not expected for several decades. In the meantime, the Government is cutting off funding for alternative approaches such as ours, and corporate sponsors are also not very motivated to pitch in. We can complain about this. We can wait for the 50 year conventional breakthrough (which won’t make energy any cheaper as discussed above). Or we can take action and simply get the job done ourselves.

In today’s world, individuals have more power than ever. With the internet, individuals can come together and amplify that power. People are active members of the global community with a direct role in tackling the problems we face.

Click here for details on how to get involved and make fusion happen NOW.