An East-West Hunt for Fusion Energy : Costly, Complex Engineering Is Best Done as Joint Effort

In their joint communique at the Geneva summit last November, President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev explicitly called for “the widest practical development of international cooperation in obtaining (fusion energy), which is essentially inexhaustible, for the benefit of mankind.” The topic of fusion energy is likely to be up for further serious discussion at the Washington summit tentatively being planned for later this year.

Why fusion, and why now? Fusion energy is the process that powers the sun and all other stars. Research into the science of fusion has been going on for more than 35 years, yet practical fusion power has been a very tough nut to crack. Advances have been made to achieve sunlike conditions of 10 million to 100 million degrees, first in one country and then in another. In the 1960s the Soviets developed the tokamak, a kind of fusion reactor consisting of a doughnut-shaped device of magnets and vacuum systems that proved especially promising for confining extremely hot gases known as plasma. The concept was originally suggested by Andrei Sakharov and Igor Y. Tamm in the Soviet Union in the early 1950s; results in the late 1960s were so good that the United States shifted its own program a few years later to focus on the tokamak approach.

The oil crisis led to increased funding for major fusion research in the United States, the Soviet Union, Europe and Japan. Each country committed millions for the construction of a major fusion-power machine. Europe and Japan were particularly motivated because of their lack of oil and coal. The cost of each major tokamak fusion-power machine ranges from $300 million to $1 billion. Now these machines are operating, and significant advances are being achieved.

This month Princeton University’s Plasma Physics Laboratory reported results that bring us closer to the end of the experimental physics roadway. Scientists achieved temperatures of 360 million degrees Fahrenheit in a controlled manner with excellent insulation against the heat escaping across the magnetic field. The Europeans, with their machine known as JET (Joint European Torus), also have achieved high temperatures--although not quite at the level of the U.S. device. The Japanese and Soviet programs are making advances as well. The next big challenge will be the hard engineering effort required to create practical fusion power.

Fusion energy can be an attractive energy source. The fuel can be derived mainly from water, so it would be readily available in essentially unlimited amounts. The fusion process involves nuclear reactions, yet has potentially significant safety and environmental advantages over fission nuclear power.

The next major step required to develop fusion energy will bring us face to face with the hard technical realities of engineering a practical fusion-power machine. This will be a complex task. The facility itself could cost as much as $3 billion to construct, and take six to 10 years. At present the United States, Europe, Japan and the Soviet Union all are at roughly the same level of development. This is why Reagan, in his report to Congress after the Geneva summit, said that he and Gorbachev had agreed to “advocate international cooperation to explore the feasibility of developing fusion energy.” Such a joint effort would provide an excellent way to share the costs and risks of developing the machine.

One major objection to this type of joint effort would be concern over technology transfer. Yet some of the key fusion technologies were first developed in the Soviet Union. In areas such as computers, the best solution is to ask the Soviets to develop their own technology. Their capability is up to the task.

Another issue is that we would be sending resources, particularly money, to other nations at a time when our own economy can ill afford it. In such a project it would be necessary to establish a joint scientific team at a common location. Major (and costly) technical systems could be manufactured entirely by a particular partner and delivered to the project site. Thus a roughly four-way split of financial responsibilities could be achieved, and the bulk of each partner’s funding would remain within its own economy.

Now is the time for the United States and the Soviet Union to exercise their political wills. They can agree first to design jointly a fusion-engineering machine, and second to undertake its construction and operation. The United States should act in concert with our European and Japanese partners to achieve a four-party project. Reagan and Gorbachev have the opportunity to initiate this enterprise at their coming summit. They should seize the opportunity and commit the money, time and talent necessary to begin the project.

A fusion-engineering project of this scope and complexity will require a mixing and bonding of people and talent to a degree never attempted between East and West. It provides a unique opportunity to work together in an integral way. Perhaps more than fusion energy can flower from such an undertaking.