France is beginning construction on the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), a tokamak style reactor to be functioning by 2016. The US has not been the leader in nuclear and fusion technologies in recent years. The US is lagging behind in scientific innovation in this area. Projects like the ITER and institutions like CERN (makers of the largest particle accelerator and the worlds most sensitive "camera") make the US pale in comparison.

Furthermore, nuclear / fusion electrical production has a minuscule carbon footprint when compared to that of the "cleanest" coal fired plant. In fact, technologically we are closer to consumer viable nuclear fusion plants than we are to "clean coal technologies."

Invest in micro-fusion research as well. UCLA scientists have created a "desktop reactor" That could fuel future spacecraft and medical devices. Breakthroughs are being made in Pulsed High Density Fusion. The science is sound.

Don't be afraid of events such as Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, but let them be warnings. These incidents were caused by careless experiments, flawed designs, and poor government oversight. Modern nuclear plants have safety built into the physics of the reaction, the plant would automatically shut down if left alone for three days.