I know he passed away, but any followup information on Robert Bussard's technology?(Inertial electrostatic confinement fusion) The final data they analyzed after the project lost funding showed they had succeeded at a final stage level.
Funded for over 20 years by the Department of the Navy, Bussard's EMC2 corporation was tasked with solving 19 fundamental challenges that stood in the way of designing commercially viable Farnsworth fusors - and in an unexpected twist, a race to bring the prototype online after project funding was cut in 2006. In 2006, Bussard's Polywell design was awarded the Outstanding Technology of the Year Award by the International Academy of Science. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhL5VO2NStU Brian Prothro
