A Piece of the Sun

June 3, 2013
For the past 60 years, the development of controlled atomic fusion has been the holy grail for physicists and alternative-energy advocates. Clery, a theoretical physicist and European news editor of Science magazine, introduces readers to the problems inherent in this quest and to the international group of scientists who doggedly pursue it. Following WWII and the advent of the atomic bomb (which was based on fission), British, American, and Soviet scientists began investigating the possibility of fusion as a means to build more powerful weapons. Amazingly enough, in 1958—at the height of the Cold War—the U.K. and the U.S. completely declassified their fusion research, thereby enabling physicists from around the world to collaborate. But even with international cooperation, the magnitude of the task was glaringly apparent—it was far more complicated and expensive than they could’ve imagined. Getting to a point where fusion was tenable in the lab meant harnessing the power of the Sun on Earth. The author charts many dead ends and limited successes, all of which have led to a greater store of knowledge, but no fusion energy—yet. Ultimately, Clery argues that developing a source of energy that won’t damage the climate—or ever run out—is worth striving for. Agent: Peter Tallack, Science Factory (U.K.).

June 1, 2013
A surprisingly sprightly tour d'horizon of the pursuit of fusion energy, from Science deputy news director Clery. Fusion is all, writes the author: "Every atom in your body, apart from the hydrogen, was created by fusion in a long-dead star." If fission is the evil twin, then fusion is what we want as a source of energy: the melding of two nuclei to make a larger one, producing heat as a byproduct--without the wealth of other nasty byproducts that fission leaves in its wake. However, at the same time, the nuclei repel each other, unless under terrific pressure. We have not even achieved a break-even point yet: More energy is pumped into provoking the reaction than is produced, and plasma's notorious instabilities have made it too furtive to harness. Clery walks readers through the history of fusion study, from Lord Kelvin, Albert Einstein and a large cast of peculiar physicists, to all manner of international politics--e.g., the darts and feints of the Cold War, the braces applied by OPEC in the wake of the 1973 war among Israel, Egypt and Syria. Clery negotiates the hard science with aplomb, though there are times when it takes considerable focus to follow the proceedings: "In a tokamak, the horizontal toroidal field and vertical poloidal field combine to produce helical magnetic field lines." Yet even such dark matter slowly becomes accessible, and both the promise and the pity of fusion take shape. Clery taps into the whirlwind of excitement around cold fusion, the give and take of public funding to fusion research, and the frustrations that jeopardize that work--for example, $450 million going to the National Ignition Facility to "investigate why there was a divergence between simulations and measured performance." A compelling case for continued, even increased, fusion research.

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July 1, 2013
In the ancient myth of Prometheus, Clery finds a metaphor for the labors of twenty-first-century scientists now striving to bring heavenly fire down to earth. In the U.S., Europe, and Asia, these modern Prometheans are building bold new technologies to create energy the same way the sun does: by fusing hydrogen atoms. Explaining cutting-edge science with remarkable lucidity, Clery probes the subatomic dynamics of fusion, clarifying both the reasons that the world's best physicists have repeatedly failed to harness these dynamics and the reasons that, with new tools, they now believe they can succeed. As readers contemplate the size of the new tools, they will recognize why a single fusion projectsuch as the Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) currently under construction in Franceinvolves difficult international negotiations over costs and personnel. Above all, Clery illuminates the reasons for large investments in fusion as an energy alternative the world desperately needs as oil reserves dwindle and global temperatures rise. A timely perspective on truly urgent science.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)