The "Laser Inertial Fusion Engine" (LIFE) is being developed at the National Ignition Facility. Stewart Brand blogs about its potential here and this video (.mov 128MB) is stunning. How LIFE works. Successful early test shots suggest that the NIF will achieve first nuclear fusion ignition within the next few months (+10 years to commercial).
posted by stbalbach on Jun 17, 2010 - 44 comments

A baby star on Earth. The NIF (National Ignition Facility) is about to fire up lasers to demonstrate the real world possibility of nuclear fusion with a positive energy gain. BBC link with promo video narrated by Samuel L. Jackson. Also: previously.
posted by NekulturnY on May 5, 2009 - 76 comments

Wendelstein 7-X is an advanced stellarator. When finished in 2010 it will be used to contain plasma up to 100 million degrees in a very powerful magnetic field. It's one step towards building a nuclear fusion reactor. I was surprised to find out just now that there are already plans to build one in France.
posted by namagomi on May 1, 2006 - 30 comments

New study claims cold fusion is possible 'A paper by a team of researchers at Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Laboratory who say they have discovered evidence of what looks like nuclear fusion taking place in a relatively inexpensive tabletop device.' You have to go back to 1989 for the last claim of this kind. Cheap energy - the answer to America's dreams, or Bush's biggest nightmare? (Via Techdirt)
posted by RobertLoch on Mar 25, 2002 - 31 comments

The next threat to the Bush energy policy: Table-top nuclear fusion.
posted by mrbula on Mar 4, 2002 - 18 comments