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Summary
Summary
At the Geneva Superpower Summit in November 1985, Secretary of the former Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev and US President Ronald Regan agreed to pursue an international effort to develop fusion energy for peaceful purposes. At a time when tension between these cold war nations was very high, how were these leaders able to come together to work towards making nuclear fusion a feasible energy source?
The Quest for a Fusion Energy Reactor is the story of the INTOR Workshop (INternational TOkamak Reactor) which brought together scientists and engineers from Europe, Japan, the United States, and the (then) USSR from 1978 to 1988 to share their individual research and work cooperatively on the design and development possibilities for harnessing nuclear energy. Drawing on his insights while serving as Vice Chairman of the INTOR Workshop, Weston Stacey offers an insider's account of both the participants' technical work and their fascinating political interactions under the blanket of the cold war. An accessible presentation of their research on the viability of designing, constructing, and operating a Tokamak experimental power reactor is combined with personal anecdotes of the obstacles Workshop leaders and participants faced as they strove to make progress on the global future of nuclear fusion technology while balancing their own countries' priorities. The Workshop led to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), construction of which began in 2009 with the goal of demonstrating the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion power.
Author Notes
Weston Stacey is a plasma physicist and nuclear engineer with over 40 years of teaching and research experience in nuclear reactor and fusion research. He led the U.S. team in the IAEA INTOR Workshop that led to the ITER fusion energy reactor project, which is the subject of this book. He has published 9 textbooks or research monographs and more than 260 original research papers.
Reviews 1
Choice Review
With the growing need for cheap, clean, renewable energy, the world must again consider the nuclear option, especially nuclear fusion. Can an infusion of research and resources develop fusion energy in a decade (or two)? The physics and the engineering problems are tough, but the political problems have always proved tougher still. Yet, with the 2009 construction start of the multibillion-dollar International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), perhaps this goal is attainable. Plasma physicist/nuclear engineer Stacy (Georgia Tech), in the autumn of a long career in the field, documents his participation in the 1980s International Tokamak Reactor (INTOR) workshops that shaped the collaboration and partnership born of economic and scientific necessity among Russia, Japan, the European Community, and the US that led the way. This work is an elegant, personalized, if idiosyncratic, account that speaks well for the model of how science progresses. Try this easy piece of a nuclear story, a fascinating insider account for general readers and, in particular, professionals in the field. Who knows? Perhaps the promise of fusion may finally be realized--in another decade (or two). Summing Up: Highly recommended. All collections. L. W. Fine Columbia University
Table of Contents
| 1 Prologue (1978) | p. 3 |
| 2 Zero Phase of the INTOR Workshop (1978-80) | p. 17 |
| 3 Phase I of the INTOR Workshop (1980-81) | p. 65 |
| 4 Phase 2A of the INTOR Workshop (1981-88) | p. 109 |
| 5 Epilogue | p. 157 |
| Appendices | |
| A Sessions of the INTOR Workshop | p. 161 |
| B INTOR Workshop Participants and Experts | p. 163 |
| C Reports of the INTOR Workshop | p. 169 |
| D Tokamaks in the World | p. 173 |
| E Awards to the Author for the INTOR Workshop | p. 179 |
| Glossary | p. 181 |
| Bibliography of Official INTOR Workshop Publications | p. 187 |
