Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking

My first exposure to Seife was with his book "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea." It was so wonderful, that I thought I'd read something else by him to see if the first book was a fluke. It was not. In order to keep the interview readable, I have only dealt with about 1/2 dozen of the points that Seife made in this wonderfully readable/ entertaining book. 1. He documented the fact that nuclear treaties are reliably unreliable. He gave names, dates, and places of where treaties had been signed-- only to be ignored some time later. It's a very interesting thing to know for people who believe that some nuclear problem will be solved *just* because a treaty has been signed. 2. We already knew the Chemistry (since that is what my degrees are in) behind what he described, and so I can comment and say that the quality of his description was easy enough to follow and re (and reread) in the event that you want to understand all that he is saying. From this, I can surmise that his discussion of the Physics was of the same quality/ ease of following. 3. It was interesting to note that the pseudo-scientific aspect of fusion of various types was something that could be turned into a whole book. Robert Park discussed this topic in his book "Voodoo Science" (in his typical wonderfully acerbic way), but this book flushed out the topic and showed that if anything, the amount of pseudoscience/ foolishness involved in fusion up to this point is actually even *worse* than Park gave it credit for. 4. Heretofore, I'd never known about the damage that can be done to a nuclear arsenal by simply *letting it sit* and not be maintained too long. Apparently, the nuclear capability of the United States doesn't have to be actively dimished by any particular starry eyed administration (ahem!): It is enough to just let the equipment sit and rot and nuclear capability will destroy itself. 5. There was a good case made for fission materials as a source of nuclear energy. And a lot of people have not given this a very serious cost-benefit analysis (neither did Seife, actually, but he got much further than most people who take any position on fusion). What we know so far is that fusion leaves behind just as much nuclear waste as fission-- and scientists have spent billions and billions of dollars even in light of this information. 6. Very few people know about the scientific review process. (Think of how many times you can hear people say stupid things like "It is just some scientists opinion" or "Chinese Traditional Medicine is equal to Western Medicine and no one can prove otherwise.") The author really hammered home the point of how new information is created/ tested/ authenticated. Even just the understanding of this information alone (for those of us who didn't already know it) makes the book worth reading. The information about how bitter the review process can become was non essential for a lay reader, but if it were taken out, there would be some diminishment

The book's dust jacket correctly describes the various personages involved in the turbulent history of nuclear fusion as the many "geniuses, villains and victims of fusion science." This history is shown to be "frustrating" because controlled nuclear fusion (useful power plants) always seemed (and seems today) just out of reach, and with just a little more push, and with just a little more money.... The number of "justs" mounts up. Useful fusion, like the philosopher's stone of medieval times, contains such huge rewards that people pursue an illusive goal feverishly, usually to their detriment. The possibility of making lots of money, and the dead certainty of becoming instantly and permanently famous is so irresistible. Certainly, coming up with a way to control fusion will reduce the problem of supplying power to the entire world to a minor matter. But it must be actually made practical. The author defines that practical threshold as a fusion reaction creating more power going out, than power put in to make the reaction go. Simple, understandable explanations like that make this an interesting book to read. Perhaps the core of all problems in designing controlled nuclear fusion can be best summed up by the "Rayleigh-Taylor instability," a phenomenon very well described and illustrated by the author. In fact, the reader is encouraged to open the book to the drawing of the upside-down glass of water, in the first third of the book (easy to find by flipping pages), and reading quickly about this instability. This explanation can be kept in mind through the rest of the book as an excellent way to visualize the fusion-engineering problem. Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann, of course, receive a good part of the book. These are the unfortunate and foot-shooting scientists caught in that infamous 1989 bollixed announcement about their "successful cold fusion" discovery. After being proved an example of bad experimental data, the two continued more or less covering up their mistakes. Their careers plummeted right after that and never recovered, maybe reminding other scientists to check and recheck their data. The author dislikes Edward Teller. Sort of. The reader is encouraged to take the Teller-bashing with some suspicion. Nevertheless, "Sun in a Bottle" is a fine recent-history work, well worth reading.

I found "Sun in a Bottle" to be very readable and highly informative. Looking at the readers' ratings, it is pretty clear that this book is too incisive not to offend the "true believers" in both "hot fusion" and "cold fusion". Enthusiasts for "cold fusion" are accustomed to being scourged by mainstream science writers. I suppose that Seife's book is especially hard for the "hot fusion" enthusiasts to read given that so many have careers and incomes dependent on continuing heavy government funding in the field and that "Sun in a Bottle" represents a departure from the usual breathlessly optimistic "press" for the endeavor, despite over 50 years of unrealized promises and no prospects of success within the foreseeable future. Seife provides an excellent narrative of research into nuclear fusion and a comprehensive and comprehensible discussion of the current theory and experimental record behind nuclear fusion, including both the inertial confinement and more promising magnetic confinement approaches. He also offers the most credible explanation of why so-called cold fusion, the sporadically observed phenomenon of some sort of heat producing interaction among a lozenge of palladium, a bottle of heavy water and a current of electricity, cannot be nuclear fusion, whatever it is, even if the phenomenon is real. Seife further explains very clearly why industrial electric power generation from controlled "hot fusion" reactors, which has been "25-30 years from being practical if only researchers are appropriated another $10 billion or so for the next fiscal year" for the last 50+ years will be no great gift even if finally realized. Each working fusion reactor will most likely be enormous, cost many billions of dollars to construct and emit vast amounts of neutron radition. The neutrons emitted by the fusion reaction will both erode and irradiate the reactor vessel via the process of neutron activation. Therefore, whatever net electricity will be generated by a fusion reactor will likely be very, very expensive in comparison to electricity from a fission reactor and from renewable non-nuclear sources because the capital outlays to build and maintain the reactor(including the replacement of components rendered weak and unstable due to neutron bombardment) will be very high relative to the net electricity produced. The main benefits of nuclear fusion over nuclear fission as a source of electricity for the grid are that waste from a fusion reactor (consisting entirely of irradiated components) is dangerously radioactive for only dozens to hundreds of years as opposed to the many thousand year hazards of spent fuel rods (although it is unlikely that the volume/mass of hazardous waste from a fusion reactor per unit of electricity contributed to the grid will be any less than that of a fission reactor) and that fusion reactors are powered by the relatively plentiful deuterium and tritium isotopes of hydrogen rather than scarce and dangerous uranium

I think that MOST people NOT involved in THE FUSION BUSINESS will find this book well-written and highly informative. The author gives an excellent overview of the reality of THERMONUCLEAR FUSION and how it is so difficult to harness as a source of controlled energy on earth, and yet a star obviously does it so easily. He illustrates how a glamour science field that offers so much perceived potential can cause seemingly reasonable people to do unreasonable things. Taming thermonuclear fusion is very difficult science and engineering, and yet the tantalizing potential is daunting. I was told 20 years ago by a NASA scientist that it is such a mindbogglingly difficult science and engineering problem that it probably will not be solved until ~2250 at the earliest. By solved she meant nations actually constructing fusion-based power plants to generate electricity. We just don't understand matter, plasmas, and lasers well enough yet to achieve such a success; otherwise we would have. An intellectual diamond ceiling needs to be broken through. Unfortunately each increment of useful knowledge gained toward the goal has cost $billions. It is possible that the human race will run out of oil BEFORE it finally harnesses controlled and useful thermonuclear fusion. That means that there will be an AWKWARD PERIOD during which much turmoil will unfold. Let's hope that humanity figures it all out before such an AWKWARD PERIOD can occur because otherwise fusion-based power plants may never be achieved ... ever, because no one will be around to need them ...

... an excellent chronicle of hydrogen fusion explained in layman's terms. Beginning with weapons research, the author takes the reader through an informed history of various hydrogen fusion projects, including the cold fusion experiments of Pons and Fleishman; and ending with successful table top fusion experiments conducted by high level "hobbyists" within their home laboratories.