#93 Nuclear Fusion Race Closing In, Harness the Power of the Sun, Save the Planet, Etc., Etc.,
Popular Mechanics
By Clifford B. Hicks
January 1959
Here is where we stand in harnessing nuclear fusion. It may come sooner than you think!
Scientists estimate that sometime within the next 10 to 20 years a switch will be thrown and the first full-scale, power-producing fusion reactor will go into operation. Even this first crude reactor probably will have a power output comparable to the huge hydroelectric plant at Hoover Dam.
That moment, if it comes, will be a pivot point of history. Nations need never fear that their power sources will run dry. For a time, obviously, petroleum will remain as a source of mobile power, and coal will continue to provide industry with heat.
You can’t change a way of life overnight. But eventually, according to the fusion experts, oil will give way to stored electrical power which has been derived from the fusion reaction, and coal will be simply another source of industrial chemicals.
At that supreme moment, man can look ahead through the halls of time for literally billions of years and still see a plentiful supply of fuel. Billions of years! When new kilowatts are needed, they simply will be plucked from sea water.
Fusion reactors will be so much better than today’s fission reactors because the fuel supply will be inexhaustible and inexpensive.
Scientists Are Optimistic
Scientist, who normally are cautious men [and women], tend to be surprisingly optimistic about one or more of these approaches. An AEC brochure at the Geneva exhibit, for example, states that when Stellerator C is completed in 1960 “is expected to be capable of producing abundant thermonuclear fusion reactions.”
Even if reactions are achieved, there is no guarantee that a true power-producing reactor is possible. But the stakes are so high in this game that most countries are boosting their ante each year. Since 1953, the AEC funds for fusion research have increased 1000 percent.
The best part of this game is that if one player wins, all win. It seems quite likely that within the next year, scientists at a laboratory somewhere on the face of the earth, will capture significant quantities of genuine thermonukes. And in 10 to 20 years, the first successful fusion reactor will go into operation.
Such a tremendous stride will herald the day when bottled stars will glow everywhere, and every man [and woman] will have an incredible amount of power at his [and her] fingertips.
