Science: Controlled Fusion

A portentous rumor is spreading fast through U.S. atomic industry: that a "controlled fusion" (hydrogen) reactor has been or may soon be achieved. Nothing has come into the open, and Atomic Energy Commission officials refuse, sometimes nervously, to answer questions touching remotely on the subject. But the rumors have enough substance to worry electric power companies. In the absence of assurances to the contrary, some of them are afraid that the fission (uranium) power plants they intend to build in the near future may be hopelessly outmoded before they are finished.

Both the Russians (on July 1 Soviet Scientist M. G....

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