Filed Under:  'Power For The Planet': Company Bets Big On Fusion
Play associated audio   One such company is hidden away in a
small business park in the suburbs of Vancouver, British
Columbia. Nothing seems unusual here — there's a food
distributor, an engineering firm and small warehouses. But on
one door there's a sign suggesting that all is not normal.  The
sign says "General Fusion" and warns people with pacemakers to
proceed with caution.  The reason for that caution can be found
behind bulletproof walls that surround an experimental machine.
This gleaming metal structure could be out of a science fiction
movie set. It stands 15 feet tall, is crisscrossed with wires
and is covered with aluminum foil. Two men are hunched over an
instrument, troubleshooting.  The machine is flanked with banks
of electrical capacitors, which hold — and release — the amount
of energy you find in a stick of dynamite. A siren warns to stay
clear: The system is charging up, and with all that electric
charge, some piece of hard