Nuclear Fusion Resource Page

For many decades, nuclear fusion has been a holy grail energy concept, promising affordable and clean power that doesn’t produce the same intensely radioactive and long-lived nuclear waste that nuclear fission generates. Nuclear fusion experiments have also been of great interest to weapons developers and the military. Driven by defense and energy goals, the US has spent over 70 years and tens of billions of dollars funding research and development into nuclear fusion. Despite this immense research effort, the concept has never reached beyond the theoretical. 

This page contains news, resources, and information about nuclear fusion.

More on nuclear fusion from the experts

• Arjun Makhijani, President, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research: Reflections on the thermonuclear ignition at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory
• M.V. Ramana, Professor and Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (SPPGA), University of British Columbia: Clean Energy or Weapons? What the ‘Breakthrough’ in Nuclear Fusion Really Means
• John Mecklin, Editor in Chief, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: The Energy Department’s fusion breakthrough: It’s not really about generating electricity
• US scientists claim fusion “breakthrough”, but it’s still early days
• UK expert reactions to reports of advance in nuclear fusion from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• Nature.com: Nuclear-fusion lab achieves ‘ignition’: what does it mean?
• NY Times: Can Fusion Solve the Climate Crisis?: Scientists made a huge breakthrough on the road to emissions-free power. Here’s what that means, and doesn’t mean. (Article available here)