The U.S. Department of Energy will provide $30 million in funding for a new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program called Breakthroughs Enabling Thermonuclear-fusion Energy (BETHE). These projects will support the development of viable fusion energy. Controlled fusion has long been viewed as an ideal energy source. It has the potential to generate clean energy, but technical challenges and costs have hindered development. The BETHE program will focus on developing new, lower-cost fusion energy, technology to lower the cost of existing fusion concepts, and improvements to existing fusion R&D ... (full story)