Conference Material

" Monster Conference. "

Title of an article in TIME Magazine on September 15^th 1958.

" A portentous rumour is spreading fast through US atomic industry: that a "controlled fusion" reactor has been or may soon be achieved [...] the rumours have enough substance to worry electric power companies. In the absence of assurances to the contrary, some of them are afraid that the fission power plants they intend to build in the near future may be hopelessly outmoded before they are finished. "

From an article in TIME Magazine from July 25th 1955 on "Controlled Fusion", representing the declassified atmosphere of research in the US, USSR and UK. Rumours misled the public and promoted the fear of breakthrough on the other side of the cold war's curtain.

First lights of declassification: Sir J.D. Cockroft (to the right) in a visit to Academician I.V. Kurchatov's house.