Fusion as a future energy source to alleviate environmental concerns

Nuclear energy, both fission and fusion, has been recognized as a possible approach to reduce CO2 emissions and hence help control the greenhouse effect. The extensive use of fission power plants in France, for example, has drastically reduced the CO2 production there, compared to other European countries, which are heavily-reliant on coal-fueled plants. Acid rain emissions are also considerably reduced. Fusion power has the added advantage of also reducing the radioactive waste problem compared to fission plants. However, near-term D-T fusion plants still involve considerable radioactive waste handling and also suffer a poor thermal efficiency, hence significant waste heat rejection. The ultimate goal is to achieve advanced fuel fusion in order to improve both situations. The long timescale currently anticipated for fusion power is frequently viewed as a major disadvantage--its benefits might be too late to reverse the undesired environmental trends. There are several fusion concepts, however, that potentially offer a good confinement for advanced fuels, and also, due to their relatively small size, make near-term development potentially feasible. Approaches that fall into this category, for example, include inertial-electrostatic confinement (IEC), and the field-reversed configuration (FRC). In addition to electrical production, efficient H2 generation also appears possible and offers added flexibility. These concepts and a potential ''fast-track'' plan to use them to rapidly develop advanced fuel fusion will be discussed