  There has been some good news, and some bad news in the controlled fusion
community recently. The good news is that the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory (LLNL) has recently produced a burning plasma. It succeeded on
several of its shots where ~1.5-2 megajoules from its laser (National Ignition
Facility, or NIF) has generated ~ 1.3-3 megajoules of fusion products. The
highest ratio of fusion energy to laser energy it achieved, defined as its Q,
was 1.5 at the time of this writing. While LLNL is sponsored by nuclear
stockpile stewardship, this author sees a likely path from their result to
fusion for energy for the world, a path using a very different laser and a very
different target configuration. The bad news is that the International Tokamak
Experimental Reactor (ITER) has continued to stumble on more and more delays
and cost overruns, as its capital cost has mushroomed from ~$5 billion to ~
$25B. This paper argues that the American fusion effort, for energy for the
civilian economy, should switch its emphasis not only from magnetic fusion to
inertial fusion but should also take much more seriously fusion breeding. Over
the next few decades, the world might well be setting up more and more thermal
nuclear reactors, and these might need fuel which only fusion breeders can
supply. In other words, fusion should begin to color outside the lines.
