As the world watched a nuclear crisis slowly unfold in Japan, UW-Madison scientists continued working on technology that could someday produce nuclear power without radioactive waste. “It?s the holy grail of alternative energy research,” said Robert Wilcox, a graduate student working on one of several UW-Madison fusion projects. In a fusion reaction, superheated atoms are joined to give off energy, as opposed to fission, in which the energy is released when atoms are broken apart. At UW-Madison, dozens of researchers are studying fusion to better understand and control the superhot substances in which the reactions take place.
Office of Strategic Communication