Firms Rush to Find Out About Fusion Experiments

Dozens of companies, including nuclear plant equipment giant Westinghouse Electric, are deluging the University of Utah with requests for more information about the fusion experiments.

And the university is encouraging the interest by providing copies of the patent applications and other data because it intends to make the technology available to anyone who is willing to pay for it.

“We are not going to build an exclusive fence around the technology,” said Norman Brown, director of the university’s office of technology transfer, which is responsible for licensing the technique for commercial use. “Anybody who wants to make money on this technology will be able to do so.”

Brown said that university policy prohibits the release of names of those seeking information but that he has talked to “Fortune 500 companies, small- to medium-sized companies involved in utilities or heating, venture capitalists, investors and scientists with money.”

He said most universities license new technology on an exclusive basis to encourage corporate use, but in this case Utah plans to allow as many companies as possible to have the information. Brown said the decision was made to open up the process because even the largest corporation in the world could not possibly meet all the fusion energy needs.

The university will probably have to develop a new financial formula to handle the royalties on the fusion process because the traditional formula of the scientists receiving 20% to 25% of the profits will not work if the demand is high, Brown said.

Businessmen, including a group of Brazilian investors, are flocking to Salt Lake City, scrambling for details about the fusion experiments, which ultimately could lead to a new, unlimited source of cheap energy. In such a scenario, the world’s dependence on oil, coal and natural gas could be dramatically slashed, shaking up the companies who produce these products.

Patent Applications Provided

While at least 50 scientific teams around the world race to replicate Utah’s fusion experiments, Brown’s office has already arranged to provide copies of the patent applications to about 24 companies and individuals who have signed confidentiality agreements.

His office has been overwhelmed with requests for information since a March 23 news conference detailed a major development by electrochemists B. Stanley Pons at the University of Utah and Milton Fleischmann at the University of Southampton in England. The two scientists, who spent $100,000 of their own money on the experiments, say they have produced energy from fusion at room temperature and got more energy out of their experiment than it took to run it.

Westinghouse Electric, which claims to be the world’s largest supplier of equipment for nuclear reactors, has already sent a representative to Utah to collect more information. The company not only formed a new fusion committee to track the results, but immediately assigned its own team of electrochemists to replicate the experiment, Westinghouse spokesman Bob Benke said.

“We would enthusiastically embrace the technology if it turned out to be for real,” Benke said.

‘Enthusiastic Skeptic’

R. Dee Haun Jr., chief scientist at the Westinghouse Research and Development Center, described himself as “an enthusiastic skeptic” toward the Utah fusion experiments.

He said it will probably be two weeks before he is able to discuss the results of the Westinghouse fusion experiments. He said about 20 people are involved in the work, which could begin immediately because the company had all the material on hand to conduct the experiment.

General Electric is also keeping a close watch on the experiments, spokesman Jack Batty said. “We are also doing some experimentation of our own, but beyond that it is impossible to speculate on what will happen.”

Southern California Edison, which provides the bulk of Southern California’s electricity and co-owns the San Onofre nuclear plant, is definitely interested in the university’s fusion research.

“This would be a wonderful way to move forward, considering the greenhouse effect, acid rain and other environmental concerns,” said Larry Papay, Southern California Edison’s senior vice president for nuclear power. Papay said, however, that it might be 20 to 25 years before the fusion technology is commercially available. Questions of shielding the radiation produced must still be answered, he said.

“But I’m not trying to throw cold water on this technology,” he said. “In fact, if it is what it is represented to be, I think it can serve society in an important way.”

Others in the electric power industry, which would be deeply affected if fusion begins providing an inexpensive source of energy from seawater, are taking a more cautious view of the hoopla surrounding the experiments. “The development of fusion reactors could clearly further nuclear applications. However, we must keep a realistic perspective on when such new technology will be commercially available,” said Tom Kallay, a spokesman for Edison Electric Institute, a trade association representing the 200 investor-owned utilities that generate 75% of the nation’s electric power.

A spokeswoman for the electric industry’s Electric Power Research Institute in San Francisco said that the staff is closely monitoring the experiments but that it is too early to comment on the results and their implications.

It is no surprise that the nation’s oil companies and heavy manufacturers are also watching the developments with interest. At Unocal, a company that prides itself on research and innovation, Chief Executive Richard J. Stegemeier said the company has assigned people to look into questions raised by the Utah fusion experiments.

“Many people believe it is not really fusion, but it’s no less interesting because all we really are looking for is heat,” said Stegemeier, the former head of Unocal’s research labs. “We have some ideas on new ways to conduct those experiments.” He would not elaborate.

Atlantic Richfield Co. spokesman Albert Greenstein said the company is “obviously interested in any form of alternative energy.” He said Arco’s research and development people are closely following the fusion developments.