Energy methadone

Finally, I get an opportunity to discuss nuclear fusion!

If you ever get in a discussion with me about energy, I'm likely to bring up nuclear fusion, and then get angry that the United States isn't funding fusion research more. It's immediately clear to anyone with a basic science background that fossil fuels are non-renewable -- thus, oil and coal are in finite supply, and could theoretically run out in the next fifty years. Nuclear fission, a popular form of energy generation, creates harmful radioactive waste that will remain deadly for thousands of years. Wind, solar photovoltaics, and hydroelectricity are cool, but they create a big eyesore and little energy. Hydrogen cells are three-card-monty -- you spend a lot of energy creating the hydrogen in the first place! There's only one real viable long-term solution, which is nuclear fusion.

There are two big reasons why fusion power isn't lighting your home yet: public opinion, and lack of research money. After the 'cold fusion' fiasco, public opinion about nuclear fusion has remained very low. (If you do a word-association test, 'cold fusion' is sure to be associated with 'hoax'.) But just because we haven't created a self-sustaining fusion reaction here on earth yet does NOT mean that fusion doesn't exist! Just look at the sun -- stars are definitive proof that nuclear fusion can occur. In that sense, nuclear fusion is the most natural form of energy, since it occurs within every star in the universe. :) Humans have also created fusion reactions; just look at a hydrogen bomb! (From a safe distance, preferably.) The only real barrier to fusion power is making the reaction self-sustaining, or in other words, making the reaction last longer than a few seconds so we create more energy than we spend starting the fusion.

So we know that fusion can happen, and we've got a nation full of American ingenuity. Why are we still burning oil? If you're a conspiracy theorist, then you believe that Dick Cheney has any promising fusion scientist murdered during their dissertation defense. If you're Kurt Vonnegut, then you believe that the world is physically addicted to fossil fuels (I will admit that gas fumes do smell good). But the answer's simple -- the U.S. doesn't support fusion research very well. It's mind-boggling, considering that if the U.S. and other nations eliminated their dependence on foreign oil, OPEC would be obsolete, Arab nations would lose a significant portion of their revenue, and terrorist organizations would lose a lot of funding. Thus we could sneakily force a dozen regime changes, as Arab cultures would discover they need to shed the backward, theocratic governments that have been holding them back from prosperity.

But then again, I'm a crazy liberal, so don't listen to me. :)