TRYING to extract limitless amounts of energy from nuclear fusion has proved
tantalisingly difficult. Å®ÉúСÊÓƵs are still struggling with huge reactors
capable of containing the temperatures and pressures needed to make nuclei fuse.
But there is another way: persuading a particle called a muon to squeeze
together adjacent nuclei.
Muon-catalysed fusion has faced two big hurdles. Now an international team
has cracked one of these, with a nifty way to bump up the number of nuclear
reactions each muon achieves before it decays. Meanwhile, a group of Japanese
physicists is making progress on the other.
The muon aids fusion by…
