Fusion Island

摘要

Might the first commercial application of fusion energy not be for the production of electricity but rather for the production of liquid hydrogen for vehicle fuel applications? Such thinking among university academics has given rise to the concept of 'Fusion Island'. On 18 April 1966, a few months before he became UK minister of technology, Tony Benn recorded a conversation with Soviet Academician Lev Artsimovich in his diary: "We talked about fusion. I had great anxieties as to whether we should go ahead with the huge Culham fusion programme which wasn't producing results. Artsemivitsch (sic) said: 'Well ten years ago we said it would take us 20 years to make fusion work and we still say it will take 20 years to make fusion work, so we haven't altered our view in any way'."