Inertial confinement fusion has a secret weapon - after all, it's just a scaled-down hydrogen bomb, which gives us hope that it might not be too difficult to fuse fuel under these conditions. This was supposedly confirmed by underground nuclear tests called Halite and Centurion... but all the details are classified. www.physicspodcast.com @physicspod

Released as a special treat/taster of what Patreon backers get.

In this episode, we cover one of the biggest scientific scandals in history: the tragic, tawdry tale of Fleischmann, Pons, and "Cold Fusion". www.physicspodcast.com

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A step by step description of an experiment run at JET, with information from the Culham Website (CCFE). www.physicspodcast.com

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We discuss the Joint European Torus - the most successful tokamak fusion reactor to date, and the source of a great deal of our knowledge about the outer limits of performance for magnetic confinement fusion. www.physicspodcast.com

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This episode, we're looking into one of the most bizarre fusion episodes in its long and storied history. Yes, it's that time a new experimental tokamak fusion reactor was funded almost entirely by pornography millions from the founder of Penthouse Magazine...  Comments, questions, concerns, feedback, reviews? Get in touch with us:  www.physicspodcast.com @physicspod

At the start of the tokamak revolution, there was a huge proliferation of different designs for tokamaks from universities and establishments around the world - but gradually, as it became clear that making progress would require larger and larger machines, these efforts broadly ended up concentrated in three main devices.  The Joint European Torus (JET) in the UK, the JT-60 in Japan, and the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) in the US.  www.physicspodcast.com 

Is nuclear fusion really the perfect energy source that it's sold as and cracked up to be?  Even if we can get it working, will it live up to the considerable hype? www.physicspodcast.com @physicspod

What's stopping us from getting magnetic confinement fusion reactors that work?  Is it really just... simple engineering problems? www.physicspodcast.com

The second generation of laser fusion (inertial confinement fusion) devices was built in the USA in the 1970s and 1980s - but, unfortunately, those pesky plasma instabilities wouldn't go away. www.physicspodcast.com @physicspod