Word: thonemann
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Harwell scientists, led by Peter Clive Thonemann, have made ZETA's pinch behave by passing a second current through coils around the torus. This current creates a second magnetic field which keeps the pinch away from the walls for as long as five one-thousandths of a second. The deuterium in it is heated to 5,000,000° C. (one-third of the temperature at the center of the sun), and free neutrons shoot out of the torus...
...whether these neutrons really come from the fusion of deuterium into helium 3. Powerful electrical discharges can give "false neutrons." formed in other and less important ways, but Scientist Cockcroft is "90% certain" that at least some of ZETA's neutrons come from a thermonuclear reaction. Dr. Thonemann of Harwell does not want to commit himself definitely. U.S. scientists are not sure either. Dr. James Tuck, head of the Los Alamos group, wants to learn more before he makes positive statements...
...British thermonuclear scientists do not say flatly that they are ahead of their U.S. colleagues, but Dr. Thonemann, master of ZETA, points out that with a small thermonuclear doughnut it is hard to keep the pinch away from the walls for long. "You have to go fairly big," he says, "if you want to put up temperature and put up containment time too." The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission apparently agrees with this reasoning; it is building at Princeton, N.J. a very large thermonuclear device, a "Stellarator," which is scheduled to start operation...
| 1 |