Science: Cold-Coil Fusion

The physicists convening in New York heard an elaborate progress report on controlled fusion power. The consensus—practical H-power is still decades, perhaps generations away.

Biggest problem remains how to contain the reacting material (usually deuterium), since the star-hot temperatures generated by fusion would melt any known substance. Physicists have tried magnetic bottles, in which the particles are forced together by powerful magnetic fields and held there without touching the walls of the apparatus. But present magnetic bottles are unstable. They bulge and flutter, permitting their contents to escape. More current would produce stronger...

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