C&EN Talks With . . . JET PROJECT'S
Hans-Otto Wuster In the coming weeks, Dr. Hans-Otto Wuster will be moving his family from Geneva and settling into a home near Culham, England, not far from Oxford. There, he begins work as the first director of the Joint European Torus (JET) project. The new job represents something of a switch in professional direction for the 51-year-old West German particle physicist. " I am coming into a new element. I don't know too much about plasma physics," he admits. Nevertheless, the experience gained during his past seven years at the European Organization for Nuclear Re search (CERN) in Geneva, and at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron in Hamburg and the Institute of Theoretical Physics in Cologne before that, will stand him in good stead in his new position. At CERN he played a prominent role in plan ning the 400-GeV super proton synchrotron. More recently, he was a member of CERN's management committee responsible for programs, budgeting, and planning. JET is going in adjacent to the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority's existing fusion research laboratory at Culham. The project is a collaborative effort of the nine member countries of the European Communi ties—Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and the U.K.—together with Sweden and probably Switzerland. The JET project is seen as an essential step toward establishing the correct phys ical conditions needed to promote fusion of the nuclei of such light elements as deute rium and tritium. If these can be made to fuse together, helium will be formed with a simultaneous release of high-energy neu trons. In a reactor, these, in turn, could be absorbed by a surrounding "blanket" of lithium, generating new tritium for the fusion reaction. The heat produced could be tapped to generate steam to drive a tur bine. The quest for fusion power is the subject of intense research efforts in Japan, the Soviet Union, and the U.S. Most studies center on a torus, or doughnut-shaped system, to confine the plasma magneti cally. There will be about 100 scientists and engineers on the JET team. Support staff will raise the total involved to around 400. They will build on the efforts of a prelimi nary design team that has been based at Culham for the past four years or so. As Dr. Wuster sees it, the concentration of scientific effort in JET parallels the de velopment that took place in Western Eu rope some 25 years ago in the field of high-energy particle physics. "In the early 1950's," he recalls, "the accelerator people in Western Europe got together to form CERN. A similar move has not taken
"/ believe that it will be possible to achieve our ultimate aim by the year 2000" place as yet in fusion plasma physics. But it might, now that people realize that with the advent of a device the size of JET it would be impracticable to build several of them even in a region the size of Europe. I believe that concentration is necessary for very large items; that duplication would not be a responsible action toward the taxpayer who must foot the bill. One of my motiva tions is to show that such a collaborative effort is worthwhile to everybody." The JET project won't come cheap. Some $210 million (at January 1977 prices) is earmarked for the current five-year pro gram. Of the funding, 8 0 % will come from the European Atomic Energy Community budget. The U.K., being the host country, will pick up an additional 1 0 % of the tab. The remaining 1 0 % will come from insti tutes and research centers of the partner countries where fusion research already is under way, as well as from Switzerland, should it elect to join. According to Wuster, there are three stages to the overall task ahead. The first is to obtain and study a plasma in a condi tion and with dimensions that approach those needed in a thermonuclear fusion reactor. This is the objective of the JET project. "The second stage," he points out, " i s to demonstrate technical feasibility. We will have to show, for example, that we can cope with the tritium-generating process, and that we can achieve a steady-state operation producing energy. The third will be to prove economic feasibility. This means showing the reliability of fusion and that fusion will be cost-competitive with other energy sources. "The time scale involved is different from that which people generally think of for experimental projects," he notes. " I believe that it will be possible to achieve our ulti mate aim by the year 2000 or soon after. I doubt, however, that we will make it much before then."
Phillips Petio-Suliur ^^^rXXXp^Vr U I J V A M I
When your e n gineers, research or other develop ment personnel need petro-sulfur c o m p o u n d s in individual or c o m m e r c i a l quantities, c o n t a c t Phillips. T h e leader in petrosulfur c o m p o u n d s .
Sulfides
Mercaptans (Thiols) * Ethyl Mercaptan *n-Propyl Mercaptan * η-Butyl Mercaptan Sec-Butyl Mercaptan *tert-Butyl Mercaptan *n-Hexyl Mercaptan *n-0ctyl Mercaptan *tert-0ctyl Mercaptan *tert-Nonyl Mercaptan n-Decyl Mercaptan *n-Dodecyl Mercaptan *tert-Dodecyl Mercaptan *tert-Tetradecyl Mercaptan *tert-Hexadecyl Mercaptan *Mixed Tertiary Mercaptans
Methyl Sulfide Ethyl Sulfide η-Butyl Sulfide tert-Butyl Sulfide
Di- and Polysulfides Di-tert-Butyl Disulfide Di-tert-Dodecyl Disulfide Di-tert-Butyl Polysulfide
Sulfones 'Sulfolane (anhydrous) •Sulfolane W (3% water) *Sulfolene
Miscellaneous *Ethy I th methanol *Ethylthioacetate *2-Mercaptoethanol
•Available in commercial volumes. For more information w r i t e :
Specialty Chemicals 14C4, Bartlesville, O k l a h o m a 74004. Or call 918 661-4872
PHILLIPS PHILLIPS C H E M I C A L COMPANY
66
Dermot A. O'Sullwan, C&EN London August 7, 1978 C&EN
23
