A Star Is Waiting to Be Born : U.S.-Soviet Thaw Could Hasten Fusion-Energy Project

U.S.-Soviet relations indeed are changing. But an important question is whether the changes will be fundamental and structural: Will they lessen significantly the threat of confrontation and war, and evolve into a healthy competition in economics and politics, and in cooperation where it is mutually beneficial?

To change the relationship, we must work on arms control and reductions, both nuclear and conventional, and we are. Changes must also be made in areas other than defense, areas crucial to both sides.

We want the glasnost of the present Soviet landscape to expand and become permanent--with true freedom of expression, of movement and of emigration. The Soviets want us to address our own social rights problems--rights to shelter, food and jobs. These are issues at the most basic level for both sides. Yet if our relationship is to be structurally altered and made safer, there must be a new willingness to work together and perhaps even a new means of doing so. Thus, we should look to other visible and important activities to help alter the landscape.

Science and technology are crucial to both sides. We see these fields as areas of competition with the Soviet Union in which we have great advantages. Yet we recognize Soviet strengths and capabilities, for example, in defense and space. Can we take a fundamentally different approach and cooperate with the Soviets on large science and technology projects in such a way that both sides are fully integrated into the enterprise?

U.S.-Soviet cooperation on a manned mission to Mars is receiving much press attention. It does stir the imagination, yet some call it premature while others view it as an ideal joint challenge.

Another proposal receiving less press attention is proceeding step-by-step, with specific encouragement from the joint communiques issued both at the 1985 Geneva summit and last December’s meeting in Washington. This proposal is equally challenging and would require an unprecedented degree of integration and cooperation over a period as long as 15 to 20 years. It calls for East-West cooperation to design, construct and operate an international fusion energy reactor.

Fusion energy is the primordial energy source powering our sun and the other stars. Its successful achievement on Earth would provide the human race with an inexhaustible source of energy for millennia to come. Everyone recognizes the long-term need to develop new energy sources--ones that are safe and environmentally acceptable and do not cause conflicts over fuel resources so apparent now with oil supplies.

The creation of a stable star on Earth is a truly exciting challenge, one that captures the imagination. The test machine, referred to as ITER--for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor--has as its objective the demonstration of the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion power. It is at the frontier of the science of plasma physics. To be successful, it will require the formation of a fully integrated scientific, engineering and management team and sustained government financial resources. It also will require a stable, perhaps altered political environment.

Such a joint project would benefit from a new structure in U.S.-Soviet relations and would help sustain that more mature structure.

Progress in fusion research and on the ITER initiative is quiet yet strong. At the Washington summit, reference to the fusion initiative was included in the joint statement.

Also, last October in Vienna the United States, the Soviet Union, Japan and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) tentatively agreed to form a fully integrated partnership to design the ITER machine. A design center will be established in Europe just outside Munich. Each side will cover its own costs. Washington has budgeted $8 million a year for the joint design activity and another $8 million to support required research and development. The other partners will spend comparable amounts.

At the end of the three-year design period, a separate decision must be made about construction. All parties will have the option to proceed together during construction and operation, to proceed separately or in bilateral or trilateral arrangements, or not to proceed at all. If carried out, the construction effort could cost $4 billion to $7 billion, spread over a five- to seven-year period.

By then we will have a better sense of the wider landscape. We will know if there have been successes on arms reductions. We will know the depth and permanence of glasnost and perestroika. And we will be in a position to determine if the structural changes in the relationship are basic enough to ensure that such a long-term science and energy project can be completed. The design will be ready. If the political landscape is ripe, the risk to go forward will be worth taking. A joint fusion energy project will then be one symbol of an altered landscape, a landscape where the relationship between the East and West is characterized by more cooperation and competition in economics, science, the arts and political philosophy, and by a sharply reduced risk of war.