"Peaceful Uses of Fusion" - E. Teller

Memorablia

" I have mentioned an analogy and I mean it . The analogy of flying 100 years ago. At that time the question was to understand a very difficult subject, namely the subject of hydrodynamics and in particular the subject of turbulent hydrodynamics. We are now similarly trying to understand the subject of magnetohydrodynamics. [...] I personally believe that there will be such a time, but that there will be surprises on the basis of the general situation of questions of new facts which we shall learn by the very kind of experimentation which we are undergoing today . Today we are not even clever enough, I believe, to recognise the surprise if it came along. We haven't started to ask, the really significant questions and we have, to go farther on the straight forward way, and it is not coincidence that we are all going more or less in that direction. "

"This week at the United Nations" - A Report from the International Staff of United Nations Radio. Edward Teller explaining his analogy of "flying 100 years ago".


 

Edward Teller

Edward Teller was during the time of the Conference, Co-founder and director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. His contribution the "Peacful Uses of Fusion" was giving a general insight to the endeavors made in the United States programme. His views on the matter of the possibility of Controlled Nuclear Fusion, for some much too conservative, was well noticed.

 
 

 

Excerpt:

" I should now like to ask: Where are we going? I believe that thermonuclear energy generation is possible. Whether it will be in precisely seventeen years, as our Chairman predicted three years ago [H. Bhabha], or at some other time is a matter that I think he will not argue with me and I shall not argue with him. However, I will say this: The problem is not quite easy. I will also say that on the path there may be some little flowers to be picked. Plasma physics has importance in the cosmic arrangement of things, as we heard in Professor Alfvén's paper during this session. It may have important technical applications other than energy production. I wish I could know and tell you more about this, and I hope suggestions will come forward; because this needs imagination and I am lacking in imagination. If we want to shoot for the jackpot, for energy production, I think that it can be done, but do not believe that in this century it will be a thing of practical importance. This view may be much too conservative and may be proved wrong within the coming decade, but I shall tell you why I believe what I believe..... "

 

View his paper: "Peaceful Uses of Fusion"

   

 
 

View his originally submitted paper: "Peaceful Uses of Fusion"

   

 
About Us | Contact Us | NAPC - Physics Section - Nuclear Fusion| ©2008 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)