Self colliding beams ('migma') and controlled fusion

While much of the early work on colliding beams was done in the US, the lead on the development of this technique is now held by Europe. The most spectacular being the only colliding of nuclei in the intersecting storage rings at CERN. The idea of using colliding beams for fusion is nearly as old as is the interest in fusion as a source of power, but the problems of low reaction rate and high Coulomb scattering initially seemed insurmountable. The authors describe recent work done at the Fusion Energy Corporation which attempts to overcome these problems. (9 refs).