High Temperature Research

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28150, 13 December 1956, Page 7

High Temperature Research

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 7 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Dec. 11. A scientist has created for a fraction of a multi-million degree temperatures approaching those needed to exploit nuclear fusion for power. Practical applications may not be possible for decades, but the laboratory tests already have led to a new theory of the origin of the universe and an explanation of the fact that it is expanding- at high speed in all directions.

The tests in thermonuclear control were reported at a session of fusion reactions at a meeting of the American Nuclear Society. How to fire such reactions safely is one of the most difficult problems in the search for hydrogen power. Dr. A. C. Kolb, of the Naval Research Laboratory, reported that he had produced the temperatures in a tiny bit of deuterium, a fusion fuel.

Using magnetic fields, he created shock wave velocities 250 times the speed of sound. But the high temperature region was small and the heat induced in the deuterium gas was quenched in less than a millionth of a second, Dr. Kolb said.