Fusion as a future energy source to alleviate environmental concerns

Summary form only given. Near-term D-T fusion plants still involve considerable radioactive waste handling and also suffer poor thermal efficiency. The ultimate goal is to achieve advanced fuel fusion in order to improve both situations. The long time scale currently anticipated for fusion power is frequently viewed as a major disadvantage-its benefits might be too late to reverse the undesired environmental trends. There are several fusion concepts, however, that potentially offer a good confinement for advanced fuels, and also, due to their relatively small size, make near-term development potentially feasible. Approaches that fall into this category include inertial-electrostatic confinement and the field-reversed configuration. In addition to electrical production, efficient H/sub 2/ generation also appears possible and offers added flexibility. A potential ´fast-track´ plan to use these concepts to rapidly develop advanced fuel fusion has been considered.