Nuclear fusion powerplants (thats right, fusion, not fission!) are looking like a possibility in the somewhat near future. In this article they explain how the world's largest nuclear fusion project, in southern France, expects to be able to generate ultra-hot plasma by 2025, thus replicating the reactions that power the sun. They claim this can be generated on a commercial scale. Recall, fission is the breaking up of high mass unstable atoms which releases a lot of energy. Fusion is where two light atoms combine in a process which releases a great deal more energy. We have been harnessing fission since the 2nd world war, but have not yet successfully harnessed the power of fusion. Maybe soon we will!
