Boris Horvat / AFP - Getty Images A hardhat worker walks around
the construction site for the ITER fusion experiment in Saint-
Paul-les-Durance, France. The standard joke about nuclear fusion
is that it's the energy technology of the future, and always
will be. Well, fusion is still an energy option for the future
rather than the present, but small steps forward are being
reported on several fronts. That even includes the long-
ridiculed campaign for "cold fusion." Efforts by the Italian-
based Leonardo Corp. to harness low-energy nuclear reactions
(the technology formerly known as cold fusion) have reawakened
the dream of somehow producing surplus heat through unorthodox
chemistry. Today, Pure Energy Systems News reported that
Leonardo's Andrea Rossi signed an agreement with Texas-based
National Instruments to build instrumentation for E-Cat cold-
fusion reactors. Will this venture actually pan out? The E-Cat
reactors are so shrouded in secrecy and murky claims that it's
hard to do a reality check, but most outs