Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-08-14
ThermonucIeor Power?

Dr. Homi j, Bhabha. of Indie
president of the Geneva atomic
conference, pushed news of the
big power contest for H-power into
the spotlight at the opening session
last Monday.
Il venture to predict" he de-
clared. that method will be found
for iberating fusion energy in a
controlled manner within the next
two decades. When that happens.
the energy problems of the world
will have been solved forever, for
fuel will be as plentiful as heavy
hydrogen in the oceans"
Why his prediction caused the
sensation it did at Geneva is per-
haps one of the mysteries of this
mass communications age. The
July issue of Foreign Affairs, an
American quarterly magazine. car
ried an article by John S. Walker,
an attorney with Offices in the
Tower Building here, discussing the
whole issue at length.
The Chronology
Mr.. Walkers article, cleared by
the Atomic Energy Commission,
gave this 1945-1954 chronology OF
informed comment to the effec.
that thermonuclear power is the
oretically possible:
In 1945, DR.. Hans Bethe, a Ger
man physicist who helped America
make the atomic bomb. told Con-
gressional committee about H-powei
possibilities.
In 1852, the late Senator Brien
Mcmahon, then chairman of the
Joint Committee on Atomic Energy,
Senator Bourke Hickenlooper OF
Iowa from the same committee, and
DR.. George Gamow, theoretical
physicist at George Washington
University here, all mentioned it.
In 1884, Representative w. Ster-
ling Cole of New York, Senator
Hickenlooper. and Britain's re-
nowned nuclear physicist, Sir John
Cockcroft, alluded to work on the
same project.
OF course, these casual refer
enceS gave no indication of the
difficulties involved or progress
made. Solutions have not come
easily. One British physicists ex-
PLANTATION of the problems magni-
tude can be summarized thus:
The main problems in SLOWING
down the fusion process Of the ny
drogen bomb are, first, attaining
and second, sustaining heat of the
order of millions of degrees. Hydro
gen fuses and releases tremendous
energy only at such high tempera-
lures. Even if these two hurdles
are cleared, however, no earthly
apparatus now known could with
stand the tremendous temperatures.
Presently the sun is the smallest
hydrogen pile" known to man. 1t
works like a motion H-bomb.
Scientists are now trying to develop
tiny enough sun to be controlled
here on earth.
The Geneva Solution
One method discussed at Geneva
last week is to use a particle &C
celerator, like betatron or syn
chrotron, to fire stream Of sub
atomic particles at such speeds
land temperatures that they could
melt hydrogen compounds put into
their path. The melting process is
the fusion that releases the ire
mendouS energy.
An even more impressive hope
for H-poWer, reported by Mr..
Walker, is that electricity can be
produced directly from the con-
trolled fusion reaction. Heat-to-
steam-to-electricity processes are
only 25 to IS per cent efficient.
Direct misunderstanding would,
of course, bypass the whole ineffi-
Gent steam stage.
All this, OF course, was specula-l
tive in the extreme. American
scientists at Geneva were obviously
under instructions not to talk Acc
chairman Lewis Strauss, who has
never been eager to discuss H
power, was forced to admit that
there was no positive evidence that
DR.. Bhahhas prediction was wrong.
But Admiral Strauss was noncom-
initial about prospects of success.
Most United States scientists at
Geneva were inclined to pooh-pooh
the bright optimism OF the Britons
and Indians. One of them said
H-poWer would definitely become
reality, sometime between lone
and 1000 years" from now.
But Admiral Strauss reluctantly
added that an American team was
working on the problem. This was
enough to keep the interest in the
project very much alive.
Sir John Cockcroft, leader of the
British delegation, was on the
optimistic side, indicating. perhaps.
that DR.. Bhabha had been en-
couraged to make his prediction
by his knowledge of the British
program.
However, DR.. J. Robert Open
heimer, father of the A-bomb, who
is now barred from American gov
ernmental work, was recently
quoted as saying, Il think they are
wrong / don't believe it will work"
Meanwhile, Mr.. Strauss was no
doubt thinking of the dilemma Of
the worlds investors, actual and
potential, in atomic or fission
power. How could they be induced
to sink millions and even billions
into obviously feasible fission power
plants if these were subject to being