Fusion makes so much energy, can we use it to provide cheap and abundant energy for ourselves?

A lot of effort has gone in to trying to do this. One of our most ambitious programs is at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, southeast of San Francisco. As with all the others, it tries to deal with the challenge that the hydrogen that one wants to fuse to helium must be compressed to an extreme pressure while at extreme heat, and then if the fusion reaction makes a lot of energy it tends to blow the whole compression scheme up. The process at Livermore places the hydrogen in a capsule that is heated by lasers. When it is good and hot, X-rays are used to detonate the capsule, causing it to put great pressure on its interior. The thermonuclear fusion takes place briefly during this phase, and then the process has to be repeated to get more. The slide below gives the steps and the impressive conditions created so fusion can occur (left), a picture of the outside of the reaction chamber (upper right) and the building that is dedicated to this effort (lower right).