fusion energy foundation

SygmaThe neutron bomb debate: Traditionalist French military thinkers have opposed tactical neutron bombs as inappropriategiven Soviet military doctrine. The latest advances, however, can be used in the civilian nuclear program to generatelarge amounts of fissile fuel cheaply. Shown here is a French bomb in the Pacific Island of Mururoa.French Gain Reported in Nuclear WeaponsResearchers working on the developmentof French nuclear weaponshave reportedly achieved a major scientificbreakthrough in the course oftheir neutron bomb experiments inthe Pacific. According to the June 7-8 issue of the French daily Quotidiende Paris, French scientists have overcomethe barriers to construction oflarge-scale neutron bombs.Previously it was believed that neutronbombs were limited to a size of1 kiloton of TNT equivalent, andtherefore capable only of tactical battlefieldapplications. This reflects considerationsof the kind of fusion fuelused and how the fuel is burned andignited. Tritium has a half-life of 1,1years and is expensive; U.S. N-bombsare said to depend on tritium fuel.Other fuels such as lithium deuteride,used in ordinary H-bombs, have thedisadvantage of absorbing and degradingfusion-generated neutrons.In most seemingly practical configurations,such as a sphere, the unburnedfusion fuel itself absorbs anddegrades fusion-generated neutronsas the thermonuclear burn wave,which is generated at the core of acompressed fuel configuration, heatsand ignites the cold outer layers offusion fuel.If this report is confirmed, Frenchscientists have made significant advancesin understanding either thedynamics of thermonuclear burnwaves, thermonuclear ignition at highdensities, development of totally newtarget approaches, or all three.From a strategic point of view,Quotidien de Paris commented thatthis breakthrough will further ensurethe national security of France fromthe energy standpoint as'well as thedefense standpoint, and supersedethe debate on deployment of "tactical"neutron bombs with developmentof a new generation of strategicweapons. Another French daily, LeFigaro, was less sanguine about thecontribution to France's security.French Nuclear Program Alarming?The May 1980 issue of Bild der Wissenschaft, the highest-circulationpopular science magazine in West Germany, features an article onFrance's full nuclear fuel cycle program by Martin Urban that views theFrench program with alarm. Bild expresses unsubstantiated concernsabout "radioactivity blowing over the border to Germany" and otherdangers from alleged safety problems that might arise from the massproduction of nuclear power reactors that France has pursued.Considerable influence on the magazine's editorial policy is exercisedby Robert Jungk, the most prominent West German opponent of nuclearpower. To European environmentalists, what Bild describes as "thecentrally directed, results-oriented atomic energy policy" has become amatter of the utmost concern. Unlike the U.S. situation, the environmentalisthave been unable to stop or delay France's progress.September 1980 FUSION 61