FPN08-58

50 Years of Fusion International Collaboration

October 31, 2008

In 1958, at the 2nd United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, the United States and other countries, such as Russia and the United Kingdom, declassified their research on fusion -- research that had been conducted in secret during the 1950s.

In October 2008, the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) held its biennial (22nd) Fusion Energy Conference in Geneva, the site of the 1958 conference, to celebrate the anniversary. As part of the conference, the IAEA produced a CD containing the proceedings of the 1958 conference. The CD also contains many early reports and press releases on fusion as well as photos. Copies of the CD may be requested from Guenter Mank (G.Mank@iaea.org), Head of the Physics Section at IAEA. The IAEA also produced a 28 page brochure, "Fifty Years of Magnetic Confinement Fusion Research -- A Retrospective." That brochure is posted at http://www-naweb.iaea.org/napc/physics/2ndgenconf/sets/Home.html

Writing in the brochure, Dale Meade (dmeade@pppl.gov) says "The collegial bond formed in the early years led to five decades of strong international collaboration on one of science's greatest challenges -- harnessing fusion energy on Earth."

At the time of the 1958 conference, the laser had not yet been invented so no attention was paid to inertial confinement fusion (ICF.IFE)at that conference. Since then, a large international effort has arisen in the ICF/IFE area, with the National Ignition Facility (NIF) scheduled for completion in 2009. Nevertheless, Magnetic Fusion Energy (MFE) continues to dominate the world fusion scene, with ITER, now under construction, as its flagship and the tokamak the dominant magnetic concept under development. Papers on tokamaks represented approximately 75% of the 2008 conference, with a little over 5% of the papers devoted to ICF/IFE.