WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 17, 2026) - Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have just made an important breakthrough towards using nuclear fusion to generate electricity.
Scientists Discover a Surprising Shortcut to Nuclear Fusion

Also, in a major paper published in the respected scientific publication PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, hundreds of scientists have confirmed an earlier-reported experiment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory which proved that nuclear fusion can be used to generate vast amounts of energy. In it multiple lasers were focused on a sphere of deuterium and tritium to achieve the first fusion ignition in a laboratory which yielded net energy. SEE VIDEO


Many more recent reports, including about a nuclear startup about to go public, confirm that controlled nuclear fusion will soon be a practical reality.

Once successful, fusing very plentiful hydrogen to generate virtually unlimited amounts of energy could stop global warming in its tracks is at least two ways, says an MIT-educated scientist and engineer with two U.S. patents who is a professor at George Washington University.

Fusion power generation could stop global warming in at least two major ways, says Professor John Banzhaf.


First, fusion reactors could replace the need to use fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and natural gas, with their unavoidable emissions of greenhouse gases, to heat buildings (and even whole cities) and to power generating plants which now use heat from burning fossil fuels to generate the electricity used in homes, factories, and other businesses.


Fusion power “has no limits if you can get it to work,” notes the CEO of Salesforce and a major investor in Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which aims to create compact fusion power plants. Indeed, it's already happening:

Commonwealth Fusion Systems to build world’s first commercial fusion power plant in Chesterfield, Virginia


The company explains that "nuclear fusion could provide limitless clean energy with almost zero pollution and no radiation or radioactive waste. 'One glass of water will provide enough fusion fuel [hydrogen] for one person’s lifetime,' the company predicts on its website." [emphasis added]


Since the feasibility of powering cars and trucks (and almost certainly also trains and large ships, and someday possibly even airplanes) with batteries charged by electricity generated by power plants has been established, the burning of gasoline and diesel fuel for those common transportation purposes could also be slashed if not totally eliminated.


While the enormous engineering challenges of constructing and operating efficient fusion power plants must be overcome, this approach finally seems to be feasible, and could replace many sources of greenhouse gases; especially if it is backed by the hundreds of billions of dollars now being discussed for research into other possible proposals for fighting global warming such as geoengineering.


Geoengineering (defined as the large-scale manipulation of a specific process central to controlling Earth's climate) is generally thought to include carbon dioxide removal, weather modification, and solar radiation management (e.g. by raising ground-level albedo, injecting sulfur particles into the stratosphere, whitening marine clouds, and delivering millions of tiny orbital mirrors or sunshades into space), but it might also include making a tiny change [only 0.3%] in Earth's orbit made possible by energy from nuclear fusion, says Prof Banzhaf.


Thus, as a second way of using this new and rapidly emerging technology, fusion might be able to provide the enormous amount of energy needed to make it possible to increase earth's orbit by the tiny amount necessary to completely overcome global warming; an approach now being seriously discussed and analyzed which could involve cosmic nudging.


Drawing upon the original suggestion by Matteo Ceriotti, Lecturer in Space Systems Engineering at the University of Glasgow, Prof. Banzhaf has calculated that increasing Earth's orbit by only 0.3% could completely offset global warming; thereby serving as an alternative (or as a supplemental approach) to achieving worldwide cooperation in slashing emissions of greenhouse gases by drastically modifying western lifestyles.


See, for example, Using Cosmic Nudging [Changing the Orbits of Asteroids] to Fight Global Warming


This tiny 0.3% change in Earth's orbit would require enormous amounts of energy - energy which might be generated by large-scale nuclear fusion - and could be achieved in a number of different proven ways: e.g., employing an electric thruster (an ion drive), or utilizing a gravitational sling shot effect by changing the orbits of asteroids.


Indeed, it might even be possible to exploit so-called "Δv leveraging" in which a body such as a large asteroid can be nudged slightly out of its orbit and, as a result, could later swing past the Earth, providing a much larger impulse to increase Earth's orbit by a measurable amount.


The concept of altering the orbits of asteroids to help sling shot Earth into a slightly different orbit gained traction when NASA reported that its test to determine whether it could accurately catch up to and then deflect an asteroid greatly surpassed expectations.


Originally expected to reduce the asteroid's orbit by only 73 seconds, the collision which NASA deliberately caused increased the asteroid's orbital period by an astonishing period of 32 minutes.- giving it a boost more than 25 times as powerful as scientists had hoped for.


More details about how such a cosmic nudge might be accomplished can be found at Can A Change In Orbit Save Planet Earth?


Another approach to achieving a slightly larger Earth orbit was recently proposed in Can We Use a Giant Thruster to Change Earth’s Orbit?



Moreover, and more importantly, a recent scientific analysis - including detailed calculations by a noted astrophysicist and as outlined in a newly published scientific paper - has also lent more credence to Banzhaf's original cosmic nudge idea.

Fusion Power Achieved – Now, Can It Nudge Earth Into a New Orbit?


The scientific study, entitled CORNELL UNIVERSITY - Gravity-Assist as a Solution to Save Earth from Global Warming, says:

"We propose using the gravity-assist by the asteroids to increase the orbital distance of the Earth from the Sun. We can manipulate the orbit of asteroids in the asteroid belt by solar sailing and propulsion engines to guide them towards the Mars orbit and a gravitational scattering can put asteroids in a favorable direction to provide an energy loss scattering from the Earth. The result would be increasing the orbital distance of the earth and consequently cooling down the Earth's temperature." [emphasis added]


More specifically, the paper shows how this could be accomplished within a reasonable time frame:


"The time scale to lower the orbit is about 70 yrs for one 1010 kg mass asteroid. Using the installed propulsion jet engines on the asteroids will decrease this time scale and enable us to do the asteroid maneuvering for a larger number of asteroids. This project can enable us to change the earth’s orbit and cool down its temperature by decreasing the energy flux of the sun received by the earth. This project could be feasible for the future technology on earth." [emphasis added]


In summary, if most major countries around the world are willing collectively to spend anything like the enormous amount of money necessary to slash greenhouse gas emissions (and put up with the huge lifestyle dislocations involved), to instead develop nuclear fusion as an energy source, and then on use it to deflect asteroids from their current orbits enough to enlarge Earth's orbit by less than half of one percent, we might have a feasible alternative to overcome global warming.


Thus, at the very least, in light of these very recent encouraging developments - a powerful new shortcut, net power generation from nuclear fusion, plus unexpected success in asteroid deflection - and detailed calculations by a noted astrophysicist suggesting its feasibility, Professor Banzhaf suggests that the concept of using nuclear fusion to provide sufficient energy for another way-outside-the-box approach (cosmic nudging) likewise deserves at least some additional study and consideration.



PROFESSOR JOHN F. BANZHAF III

George Washington University

FAMRI Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor

Fellow, World Technology Network

Inventor of the "Banzhaf Index"

(703) 527-8418

jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com @profbanzhaf