Nov 14 1976
From The Space Library
The USSR would be able by 1980 to produce a thermonuclear reaction by using a powerful laser, according to scientists at the Lebedev Physics Institute quoted in the USSR's -Academy of Sciences journal Priroda. Institute Director Nikolai Basov (sharer of the 1964 Nobel prize in physics, for work in laser amplification) emphasized that Soviet science had been first to begin work on this problem, which would be the basis of power engineering in the future. Scientists were using two approaches: building powerful installations called Tokamaks, in which a reaction would proceed continuously; or using a laser beam to compress a small quantity of material such as deuterium to "a hundred trillion atmospheres, thousands of times as great as inside the sun," with accompanying rise in temperatures until a microexplosion occurred, to produce current for future power and heat stations. Unlike the Tokamak, this line of research could lead to production of transportable nuclear-power stations for delivery to remote areas, the article said. (FBIS, Moscow Domestic Service in Russian, 14 Nov 76; A&A 64, 367)
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