In this video, Professor Farhat Beg of the University of California at San Diego describes his exciting research on Z-pinches - a type of plasma device that uses very large electrical currents to make magnetics fields that squeeze the hydrogen ions together. These Z-pinch fusion sources may one day bring us nearly unlimited carbon-free electricity.
Fusion powers the sun by compressing two hydrogen ions (positively charged atoms) together to make helium ions. This is incredibly difficult to do, occurring in the middle of the sun under the extraordinary pressure of the mass of the sun pressing down to push the hydrogen ions together. Fusion could be an almost unlimited source of carbon-free power if we could replicate the sun’s process on earth. Getting the hydrogen ions to combine is the tricky part since we cannot rely on the sun’s mass to do that. Instead, on earth we push the hydrogen ions together using hot plasmas (ionized gases) bolstered by magnetic fields to keep the ions close to each other.