WHY NO FUSION?

To achieve nuclear fusion, the ultimate solution of mankind's energy supply, one must meet the conditions of the "Lawson criterion" in a hydrogen plasma. The criterion sets the minimum product of particle density and confinement time that must be achieved before the energy investment in kinetic temperature pays off. As we have previously reported, scientists are edging ever closer to achieving Lawson's criterion, both by laser-induced fusion and by magnetic confinement, but they have not yet achieved its conditions.

And no wonder, we are told. For the reason why there is no nuclear fusion yet is quite different from what a bunch of Nobel-prize winning blockheads thought. The reason is that the AEC and other henchmen of the capitalist establishment have been sabotaging it because "development of fusion would instantly make valueless the conventional power generation plants now in existence, a significant part of the holdings of the most powerful capitalists."

So says a spokesman of "Students for Fusion Power," a tentacle of the Marxist-Leninist US Labor Party. Some more of their lyrics: "Oil shortages are a political hoax organized by leading capitalists to loot the world's working class... The AEC is attempting to sabotage the devlopment of the only energy source which can prevent mass starvation. . . Those involved in this attempt are . . . involved in the perpetration of mass genocide."

On the other hand, the reason why the USSR and China refuse to develop nuclear fusion is that... uh... well, New Solidarity doesn't say.

After such dazzling mental acrobatics, it is perhaps no surprise that the US Labor Party accuses Dr. Edward Teller, one of this country's foremost advocates of fusion power research, of being part of this genocidal conspiracy.

Apparently Dr Teller is not losing any sleep over the charge. "What a delight," he told a Science reporter, "no longer to be criticized for being the father of the H-bomb."