Bussard fusion aka “Polywell”

I’m watching out of the corner of my eye developments in a form of fusion energy pioneered by the late Robert Bussard[*1] .

The Next Big Future[*2] blog talkis about some of the latest developments in the Polywell fusion reactor.  It quotes an MSNBC blog article[*3] :

Currently, the most promising path toward electrostatic fusion runs through Santa Fe, N.M., where a team at EMC2 Fusion Development Corp.[*4] is currently trying to validate Bussard’s results. The team’s leader, Richard Nebel, told me this week that it’s still too early to gauge how promising the Bussard fusion device could be.

“We’re getting high-power plasma,” he said. “We don’t have answers … [but] we’re far enough along that we know we’re going to get answers.”