Subject: Re: NSA leak (fwd) From: h_tuttle@rigel.cyberpass.net

Terawatts for a few microseconds is fairly standard technology, I believe. Femtosecond laser pulses driven by *very* large capacitor banks...

I'm talking continuous generation - sustained for half an hour...

...

Terrestrial fusion is not a serious contender yet, and I doubt it will be for a long time.

It's easy to generate lots of power through fusion. The problem is confinement.

I'm still talking continuous generation - we'll leave out the H-bombs. And of course I agree confinement is a major problem. Last I heard from the cutting edge (early '90s) you could get 2MW out of a fusion reactor, but that was less than you put in to start it up. That was using Deuterium, being gentle in order to preserve the reactor. Predictions were that using D-T would break even. Even that isn't anywhere near a commercial scale generator. You know of better results ? There certainly are a number of approaches, but I think I'd know if commercial fusion reactors were working. Are you ready to take this off-list ?