INTERNATIONAL RACE TO HARNESS ATOMIC FUSION

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27993, 13 June 1956, Page 12

INTERNATIONAL RACE TO HARNESS ATOMIC FUSION

PEACEFUL ATOM

[By TOM MARGERISON in the "Sunday Times”} (Reprinted by Arrangement)

An announcement on the control of atomic fusion, which in its uncontrolled form is familiar as the hydrogen bomb, is expected in the annual report of the British Atomic Energy Authority. | due to be published in a few weeks. Mr Ivan Kurchatdv. the atomic | scientist who accompanied Marshal Bulganin and Mr Khrushchev on thenvisit to Britain, gave an account of Russia’s work on these lines when he lectured at Harwell. He agreed to give the lecture at short notice and created something of a stir when the title was announced, because experiments of this kind .have ■ been treated with great secrecy in 1 Britain and the United States. But this was not a spontaneous outburst. ; for he had anticipated his Harwell j invitation. Among his .baggage was a I bundle of brochures of the lecture carefully printed and illustrated in English and Russian. Enormous Potential

Harwell scientists were delighted by his careful account of the work and the frank manner in which he answered questions. The press greedily seized on these first crumbs of information about a process which may revolutionise our whole concept of fuel.

As Dr. C. A. Larsen, until recently head of the United States Oak Ridge atomic laboratory, has said: "If all the oceans of the world were turned to gasoline you have a rough idea of the potential energy reserve if we can harness the thermo-nuclear (hydrogen) reaction.” How far has Russia gone along this promising trail? For all Mr Kurchatov’s frankness it is impossible to say. All that we know is that Russian scientists have given a lot of thought to the matter and are intending to devote even more attention to it. As long ago as 1952 they generated temperatures of 1.000.000 degrees—roughly the same as the outer layers of the sun—in a tube a few inches across.

This business of reaching very hizh ! temperatures is the whole art of the i exercise. If heavy hydrogen atoms can be made hot enough they will fuse . together to form helium and produce I a large quantity of energy. The Problem of Heat So far only the atomic bomb is able to produce temperatures high enough to fuse the atoms. But the Russian experiments have almost attained the temperature needed. The practical difficulties in producing such high temperatures are immense, because every known substance vaporises far below the temperature needed. j The Russians have been working nn i a method in which an electric current of 1.000.000 amperes or more is passed momentarily through the heavy ■ hvdrpgen gas. The apparatus is similar tc the electronic flashlamp used by photographers, but much larger. When these very heavy bursts of , electric current pass through the gas they pinch themselves into a proI gressively thinner path and as they [draw in their wa : st the temperature rapidly increases. The very high temi pcrature lasts for only a millionth of a second, but this is long enough to I test whether fusion has taken place. Undisclosed Methods The Russians were disappointed in their experiments. At one time they detected radioactivity, which they ! thought was a sure sign that fusion had occurred: but it was found to be due to another process. It seems likely that the flash-tube method of generat- ! ing high temperatures has now been ; abandoned in favour of other undisclosed British and American work is known to have been going on along roughly the same lines, although no indication has yet been given of the results achieved. As well as the expected British announcement, Mr Kurchatov’! Harwell display will no doubt soon bring an announcement from the United States.