The road to magnetic fusion?

The road to magnetic fusion?

Controlled thermonuclear fusion promises to supply a significant portion of the world's electricity by the middle of the 21st century, according to Starpower, a report issued last week by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), which advises Congress on scientific and technical matters.

However, to maintain progress toward that goal, the report concludes, the magnetic fusion program that the United States has pursued for the last 40 years as mainly a national project will have to be internationalized.

The U.S. Department of Energy, which administers the fusion program, agrees. According to John F. Clarke, associate director of the agency's Office of Fusion Energy, the United States concluded an agreement in Vienna, Oct. 18 and 19, with the world's three other major pursuers of fusion research--the European Community, Japan and the Soviet Union, for the construction of the next large step on the way to a practical fusion reactor.

This project will be called ITER, for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, Clarke testified at a hearing by the Subcommittee on Energy Research and Development and the Subcommittee on International Scientific Cooperation of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. "My friends who know Latin tell me that iteris the Latin word for road,' Clarke told the representatives. "This seems to be the road for magnetic fusion.'

Also testifying at the hearing, Gerald L. Epstein, project director of OTA's Energy and Materials Program, said OTA had identified three possible future roads for the magnetic fusion program: a continued national effort, which would require substantial increases in its budget; internationalization; or cancellation. Budget problems, particularly the deficit, make the first option unlikely, he said. The third is undesirable. That leaves internationalization.

The committee members seemed to accept the idea of internationalization, but they expressed concerns about such things as technology transfer, secrecy and the touchy politics of managing a joint project among such disparate partners.

There are two main approaches to fusion. Inertial-confinement fusion uses pellets of solid fuel that receive blasts of laser light or accelerated particles to induce fusions in them. It is closely related to weapons research and is not part of the contemplated international program. The other approach, magnetic fusion, tries to induce fusions in a hot plasma, an ionized gas, contained and compressed by a magnetic field. However, magnetic fusion, too, has military connections.

Rep. Ralph M. Hall (D-Tex.) queried the willingness of the Soviets to collaborate. Epstein replied that the "Soviets are very interested in collaborating' and added that much of the initiative for the agreement came from Mikhail Gorbachev himself.

Rep. Marilyn Lloyd (D-Tenn.) suggested that we "might be giving more than we intend to give,' pointing out that up to now the main goal of the Soviet fusion program has not been the production of electrical power, but fuel for their fission reactors. Clarke replied that in recent months, since Chernobyl, the Soviets are starting to look at fusion as an electricity source. "They realize they've got a real problem with their fission reactors.'

The next step for ITER is for the four research agencies that negotiated the agreement to get the legislative approval of their governments. If approved, ITER will have a four-person council representing each of the partners, of which Clarke will be chairman. Somewhat unusually, it will operate on the basis of unanimous decisions.

Commenting on this, Hall said: "I think what you propose is ideal. I'm not sure it will work. You've got a tremendous job on your hands. Don't give away the store.'