Taming nuclear fusion is hard, but there are new reasons for optimism

EVEN Boris Johnson has got in on the act. UK scientists were on the verge of creating commercially viable miniature nuclear fusion reactors for export, the prime minister told his party faithful last year, announcing a £200 million funding boost, adding: “I know they have been on the verge for some time. It is a pretty spacious kind of verge.”

Another variant of that gag appears in our survey of recent developments in the field (see page “Why cracking nuclear fusion will depend on artificial intelligence”). Nuclear fusion’s reputation as a technology whose time never quite arrives precedes …