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plasma is so hot, it leaks out very quickly, before we can get much fusion from it.

The second way we try to achieve controlled fusion is to replace the sun's gravity with the force from laser light shining on a fuel pellet. Essentially we try to squeeze it to hard that the fusion reaction takes place before the atoms can escape. If we ever succeed at this, fusion will consist of a series of small explosions, much like the hydrogen bomb but on a much smaller scale.

Now there is another possibility that does not require extreme temperatures. This is called muon induced fusion (or at times muon catalyzed fusion). This takes advantage of the fact that muons, relatively rare particles, have the same electric charge as electrons but are much heavier. They can replace electrons in hydrogen molecules. The hydrogen molecule consists of two hydrogen atoms and if a muon gets in there it will pull the nuclei of those two atoms very close together - in fact close enough that fusion can occur. This works and does not require extreme temperature. The problem is that muons are unstable and can only induce a few fusion reactions before they decay. We have to spend energy to create them and so far we have not been able to get more energy out than it takes to create the muons to cause the reaction.

So we have three possibilities of using fusion to generate the energy we need. All are difficult and none has yet shown itself to be practical. We can and should continue working on this, but there are no guarantees.

Learn more about this author, Hal Lillywhite.
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