Here Comes The Sun

It has seemed unlikely to me (in my ignorance) that solar panels, windmills, etc., can replace the energy drawn from fossil fuels by six billion people. Fossil fuels cause climate change. We are beginning to suffer the consequences of climate change, and we should start talking about how we will handle that. Meanwhile, according to The New Yorker (March 3, 2014), scientists and engineers might be on the verge of creating a thousand small suns. These suns will radiate enormous nonpolluting power, leaving no radioactive residue.

In an alpine forest in the south of France, 35 nations have combined to begin building a 20 billion dollar nuclear fusion plant. The purpose of the plant, first envisioned by two Russians, Andrei Sakharov and Igor Tamm, sixty years ago, will be to make and contain what sounds to me like a tiny Sun, held captive in a "magnetic bottle" by superconducting magnets. This creation will run hotter than the Sun. You can't keep it in a paper sack. 

If the fusion plant works, our energy problems will be solved. If not, we'll try something else.  




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