Science

[steve_smith]

When will nuclear fusion be ready to be used as a clean, long term power source

[einsteinsdog]

Its still years away as far as I know .The problem is containing the mega high temperatures

[K,Conroy]

Dont know.But the way things are going they better hurry up

[qtaran111]

We are still a long way from harnessing fusion as a viable power source.

As einsteinsdog mentioned, one of the problems is containing the high temperature plasma in the fusion vessel. You have to put a huge amount of energy in (for the control and diagnostic systems) for less energy out.

For more info see: http://www.jet.efda.org/ where they actually do this or http://www.iter.org/ where they will be doing it in the near future.