Fusion, putting it briefly, is what happens inside the sun: intense heat and pressure combine to convert hydrogen into helium, releasing heat and energy in a self-sustaining reaction. Harnessing that same kind of reaction could someday solve the energy crisis here on Earth, and the US (at the National Ignition Facility in California, using the world's most powerful laser), Europe (at ITER) and China are all working on fusion in multi-billion-dollar labs. Meanwhile, just outside Vancouver, a private-government collaboration spending millions-with-an-m is keeping pace.
 
At General Fusion, plasma physicist Michel Laberge hopes to start a fusion reaction by combining several techniques in one reactor. Inside a spherical chamber, molten lead-lithium is spun up into a vortex, then shot with a pulse of magnetically contained plasma -- meanwhile, around the edge of the sphere, an array of pistons will drive a pressure wave into the center of the sphere, compressing the plasma to fusion conditions. General Fusion is designing and protoyping each piece of this system.