Nuclear fusion: Focus on Tokamak: U.S. engineers and physicists will team to attempt commercial demonstration by the year 2000

Prospects for generation of electric power from controlled nuclear fusion — the harnessing of energy released during the combination of very light atomic nuclei to form somewhat heavier ones — are meeting with renewed enthusiasm, as a result of significant progress in this area since 1968. Nevertheless, the technology still is far from commercial reality, whereas the use of controlled nuclear fission — involving energy released in the splitting of very heavy atomic nuclei into lighter ones — has been accepted commercially for some time. For example, in the U.S., the goal for a practical demonstration of fusion energy is the end of the century. In the meantime, the emphasis in the nation's fusion program has been shifting from research to engineering and technology.