Ivy Matt wrote: Design Engineering has an article on General Fusion, viewable online (click on the cover image). The Canadian company is hoping to achieve proof of concept in 2015 and have a commercial reactor available by 2020. The article mentions ITER and NIF, but a quote from Dr. Paul Wilson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison also appears to contain an oblique mention of other contenders:

“I think a horse race metaphor works well,” Wilson observes. “We’re probably going to see one horse pull ahead and then maybe another catch up and lead the group for a while, and so on. This will be an interesting decade.”

Where have I heard that horse race metaphor before? 😉

(Hat tip to jcoady at Talk-Polywell.)

Nice article.

“General Fusion will be holding an important physics test this summer of their plasma compression device. If all goes well, it is likely to change the global fusion mindset”
I doubt it. The will have to prove feasibility that this device can scale to a size that produces more energy output than input. So even if the physics work out, that doesn’t mean a power plant is feasible or practical… and the global fusion mindset will stay with the Tokamaks and 50 years away.

But I do like the approach. A steampunk fusion approach 🙂