Customer Reviews

The Fusion Quest

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My first encounter with nuclear fusion was when I witnessed a test of the University of Texas at Austin tokomak reactor during 1975. Sparks the size of my fist jumped as the huge relays closed, sending thousands of amps of current surging the the huge electromagnets that would squeeze the tenuous torus of hydrogen gas into an inferno hotter than the sun -- crushing hydrogen nuclei together to produce energy. Nuclear fusion held the shining promise of limitless cheap energy, with virtually no radioactive waste or accident risk. Since that time I have watched incredulously as national fusion effort foundered helplessly, while our nation squandered its resources on foreign petroleum, and burned into greenhouse gases. After reading this book, I have a better understanding of why we failed. The problem is not money -- Fowler recounts the millions spent of muscular hardware. The real problem is the inability of our nation to harvest our best minds to work on the promise of limitless energy, and the failure of nerve by our country's leaders to make fusion a goal. It will take more than this book to revitalize the fusion effort -- it reads like a dull college lecture, complete with tests at the end. Nevertheless, fusion students will appreciate a chance to aquaint themselves with the specialized terminology and details of this specialized field of physics. Real fusion enthusiasts might be curious enough to look at a less successful attempt at fusion -- Fire from Ice: Searching for the Truth Behind the Cold Fusion Furor by Eugene J. Mallove.

--Auralgo