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Developed in secret for the United States Navy, the Polywell Fusion Reactor (also known as a Bussard Reactor) revolutionized energy production.  After the success of the first demonstration plants, polywell reactors were quickly accepted and began to rapidly displace all other forms of electrical power generation.  They were also used on Earth to power both commercial and military ocean-going vessels.  They were later adapted to power the VASIMR rocket engines of large spacecraft, and are still used up to the present time as power sources for virtually all spacecraft.

The fuel of a polywell reactor is boron-11 and helium ions.  These elements are relatively plentiful and inexpensive throughout known space.  Polywell reactors do not produce nuclear waste, nor are they capable of meltdown or explosion.  They produce electrical energy directly, without thermal conversion, which makes them highly efficient and means they don't need the huge cooling towers of conventional power plants.

There is a lower limit to the size a polywell can be made and produce net power.  This prevents them from being used in most vehicles, aside from spaceships and large ocean-going ships.  A huge fusion-powered aircraft was once built as a demonstration, but it proved impractical to operate.  Thus, most aircraft continue to burn liquid fuel, often biofuels.  Most of the rail networks are fusion powered, but only indirectly -- power is fed from stationary fusion plants through the track system to the locomotives.  Thus, a reactor is not carried on board the train itself.  Also, most automobiles use [[power cells]] which are charged from the electrical grid with fusion-generated electricity.

The larger a polywell reactor is built, the more power it can theoretically produce.  However, instead of using a few huge power plants, most colonies have smaller reactors, often in the 150 to 250 megawatt range, forming a more decentralized electrical grid.

Although polywell reactors do not produce nuclear waste, they do produce a modest neutron flux.  They require some shielding, and the shielding will eventually -- say after 20 years -- become radioactive and require replacement.  Disposal of the contaminated shielding is usually done in space.  In the case of spaceship reactors, the entire reactor is often dumped and replaced with a new one.

It is possible to convert a polywell reactor to burn hydrogen fuel.  In this case the reactor does not produce electrical output, but instead produces heat and a large neutron flux.  This can be used to transmute elements and produce fissile materials such as thorium and plutonium.  This would be one possible path for any government or other agency attempting to secretly develop atomic weapons -- in violation of international law.