Science / Medicine : Fusion Reactor Progress Told

Physicists at Princeton University said last week that they have developed a fusion reactor capable of producing as much energy as it consumes, a step that brings them closer to harnessing the energy of the H-bomb. But they cautioned that the project, which has spanned 15 years and cost $1 billion, faces several major hurdles--including determining how to extract the energy from the reactor--and could be decades away from commercial use.

The researchers at the Princeton Plasma Physics Research Laboratory have combined atoms of a heavy form of hydrogen called deuterium to form helium and energy. The next step, which researchers hope to achieve in 1993, would use a mixture of deuterium and a radioactive form of hydrogen called tritium to generate large amounts of energy in a reactor.

Proponents say fusion eliminates the danger of reactor meltdowns, produces less radioactive waste than current nuclear plants do, and is produced from a readily available source--hydrogen isolated from sea water. “It is a potentially safer technology, but it has a long way to go when you compare it with existing commercial fission reactors,” said Dennis Manos, principal research physicist at the Princeton labs.