Towards Nuclear Fusion

The outlook for controlled nuclear fusion has become much more complex than it appeared to be at least to the general public when the possibility of taming thermonuclear reactions for the production of useful power was optimistically mentioned at the 1955 Geneva conference on the peaceful uses of atomic energy. Indeed, it may now be impossible to r e capture the widespread excitement that followed the prediction about thermonuclear power by the Pres i dent of the conference. Dr. Homi J. Bhabha of India, and the subsequent disclosures that research on controlled nuclear fusion was actively under way in some of the technically advanced countries.