IEC Fusion

Although most funding of fusion research has been focused on tokamak and laser implosion devices, new developments in IEC (inertial electrostatic confinement) fusion using quasi-spherical magnetic fields may offer an important breakthrough.

The following document presents Dr. Robert Bussard's IEC fusion research at EMC2 over the past 17 years, as given at a Google Tech Talk lecture.
The video of this talk, from which this document was based, can be found at: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1996321846673788606

Dr. Bussard also gave this talk at Yahoo! on April 10, 2007. It is similar to the Google talk, except he spoke more about the impact on the world towards the end of the talk. A video of this talk is only available internally to Yahoo! employees.

The paper mentioned in the above video and article that describes his research in more detail can be found at:

The advantages of IEC fusion over tokamaks and other alternatives is detailed in the following article. This article was reformatted and updated in July 2007 with color pdf illustrations:

A review article of electrostatic plasma confinement and magnetic electrostatic plasma confinement (MEPC) that includes a discussion of the IEC Polywell approach is provided here:

Robert Bussard summarized the results and conclusions of the WB-6 program:

IEC Fusion Physics


Detailed physics of IEC fusion are detailed in the following papers. These articles were reformatted and updated in July and August 2007 with color pdf illustrations:


IEC Fusion and Spaceflight

Dr. Bussard has written several papers concerning the usage of IEC fusion in space flight. These articles were updated in May-August 2007 by reformatting and adding color pdf illustrations:


IEC Fusion Publicity


Mention of IEC fusion research was made in the following articles:

Energy/Matter Conversion Corporation Inertial-Electrodynamic Fusion (IEF) Device was the winner of the 2006 Outstanding Technology of the Year Award by the International Academy of Science

Two sites with additional information on IEC fusion have been provided by Joe Strout at:


Information on EMC2 Fusion Development Corporation, a charitable research and development organization with a focus on fusion can be found at:


  • In April 2007, Dr. Robert Bussard, stated that due to the publicity from his 11/9/2006 talk at Google and the 2006 Outstanding Technology of the Year Award, the U.S. Navy sent him a contract extension at no cost. There was no funding attached to it at that time. Subsequently, on August 21, 2007, EMC2 received DOD funding for its Phase I research in Albuquerque, NM to construct the WB-7 and WB-8 machines, to validate the WB-6 results.

EMC2 Reports

Energy/Matter Conversion Corporation reports from 1990 and 1991 relating to aspects of IEC Fusion are:

There are over 100 Energy/Matter Conversion Corporation subsequent papers and final reports on its IEC fusion research that remain classified as per the US Navy publishing embargo. However, a report on the WB-6 can be found here:



EMC2 Reports (reformatted)

The following Energy/Matter Conversion Corporation reports have been reformatted:

Tom Ligon Articles

Tom Ligon has written articles and presentations on IEC fusion and its applications:


Related Fusion Articles

Papers that are frequently cited in the above references include:


A paper on the application of neutrons generated from an IEF fusion source to treat radioactive waste:


Dr. Bussard died at age 79 on October 6, 2007 of cancer. In his memory, here are some articles that he wrote over his career.