As our team works to build our new website and new content features over the coming months, we're also reviewing the Department's video archives. In the below piece, a narrator ask people on the street "what is fusion?" and then, around the 2-minute mark, kicks off a nice introduction to fusion science.

It's worth a watch if you could use a brush up on the basic science, or if you'd just enjoy a reminder of what Americans were wearing a couple decades ago.



With much research and development, scientists at the Department of Energy have done a great deal to advance our knowledge of fusion since the time this video was made. Among the latest advancements, the Department of Energy's NIF laser located at the National Ignition Facility in California recently set two new records, both of which were milestones toward the Department hopefully eventually creating the first ever fusion ignition in a lab environment -- a feat, which among other things, could help the United States become more energy independent.

Stay tuned for more snapshots and videos from the past in this "Vintage DOE" series.

G. Simmons is a New Media Specialist and contractor to the Office of Public Affairs.