Commercial Fusion Power

What is it?

Nuclear power with very little waste and once the reaction has been started it will last hundreds of years. In 1966, Asimov said

the fusion of the hydrogen-2 contained in a liter of ordinary water, we could obtain as much energy as we would get through the combustion of 300 liters of gasoline. (entire passage)

There's a great tutorial on the net that covers the basics. And a lecture (local copy) from 1992 with some good strategies to get it done.

Why don't we have it yet?

The main issues are containment and ignition. Containment may be solved with a Tokamak.

Plans

There are lot's of proposals for getting this done but most of links I had here have vanished in the last few months! But here's a recent overview in Wired magazine.

I'm just getting into this, so if you have some good info, pass it my way

Compact Fission

OK, this is fission but looks very interesting: Hyperion Power Generation is planning to have mini nuclear power stations available before 2015. These will be hot-tub sized units that generate 25 megawatts which could power 20,000 homes. They would have no moving parts in the core, no water cooling, would be buried and need no maintenance until after the 5th year when it would be dug up and refurbished and refueled at the factory.

Ignitor

The Ignitor Project was announced in 2010. Russia and Italy have entered into an agreement to build a new fusion reactor outside Moscow.