Project Sherwood
Project Sherwood was the codename for a United States program in controlled nuclear fusion during the period it was classified. After 1958, when fusion research was declassified around the world, the project was reorganized as a separate division within the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and lost its codename.
Sherwood developed out of a number of ad hoc efforts dating back to about 1951. Primary among these was the
The name "Sherwood" was suggested by Paul McDaniel, Deputy Director of the AEC. He noted that funding for the wartime Hood Building was being dropped and moved to the new program, so they were "robbing Hood to pay Friar Tuck", a reference to the British physicist and fusion researcher James L. Tuck. The connection to Robin Hood and Friar Tuck gave the project its name.[1]
Lewis Strauss strongly supported keeping the program secret until pressure from the United Kingdom led to a declassification effort at the 2nd Atoms for Peace meeting in the fall of 1958. After this time a number of purely civilian organizations also formed to organize meetings on the topic, with the American Physical Society organizing meetings under their Division of Plasma Physics. These meetings have been carried on to this day and were renamed International Sherwood Fusion Theory Conference.[2] The original Project Sherwood became simply the Controlled Thermonuclear Research program within the AEC and its follow-on organizations.
Designs and concepts
Research centered on three plasma confinement designs; the
Budget
The funding for Project Sherwood began with the closure of another program called
Year of Project | Budget |
---|---|
1951-1953 | $1 million[4] |
1954 | $1.7 million[4] |
1955 | $4.7 million[4] |
1956 | $6.7 million[4] |
1957 | $10.7 million[4] |
Declassification of Project Sherwood
The declassification of the program was a large topic of discussion between scientists at all of the laboratories involved with the project and at the
However, as the difficultly in making a working fusion reactor became increasingly clear, fears of hidden reactors faded. Additionally, while some of the required industrial work could be conducted without access to the classified information, there were some instances where the classified information of the program was a necessity for those people working on projects such as the large-scale stellarator, the ultra-high vacuum, and the problem of energy storage.[7] In these instances, there was a contract with the Commission that the information that was being used would only be shared with the personnel that was directly working on the project. It soon became apparent that industrial companies were expected to become highly invested in the area of fission and because of this it became clear that these companies should have full access to the research information obtained by Project Sherwood. In June 1956, permits for the research information from Project Sherwood became available through the Commission for companies that were qualified.[8]
Between 1955 and 1958, information became more and more available to the public with its gradual declassification beginning with the sharing of information with the
In 1956, Soviet physicist Igor Kurchatov gave a talk in the UK where he revealed the entire Soviet fusion program and detailed the problems they were having. Now that the very group of people the classification was intended to keep in the dark were at roughly the same stage of development, there was no obvious reason to continue classification. While the UK had been among the first to classify their program in the aftermath of the Klaus Fuchs affair in 1950, in the summer of 1957 they appeared to have successfully created fusion in their new ZETA and were clamoring to tell the press of their advances. Their agreement to share information with the US required them to classify their work, and now they also began pressing the US to agree to declassification.
By May 1958, basic information about the various projects within Project Sherwood including the stellarator, magnetic mirrors, and molecular ion beams had been released to the public.[10]
Development of other programs in controlled fusion
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
In the early 1950s, Oak Ridge National Laboratory was composed of a small group of scientists that were mostly experienced with research in ion-source technology. However, research from Project Sherwood was a growing area of interest, and the researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory wanted to participate in the discovery of controlled fusion. They studied areas of controlled fusion such as the rate of plasma diffusion in a magnetic field and the charge-exchange process. However, their work with ion-source was still a large part of their research.[11]
University of California
Although there was already a main project (magnetic mirror) at the University of California, scientist W. R. Baker began research into the pinch effect at UCRL, Berkeley in 1952. Two years later, Stirling Colgate began research on shock-heating at UCRL, Livermore.[12]
Tufts College, Medford
There was another small group of scientists at
New York University
In 1954, there was a program started at New York University called the Division of Research. It was a small program that included personnel from the Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University.[14]
Other programs (1955–1958)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)[15][16]
- Carnegie Institute[15]
- Westinghouse Electric Corporation[15]
- Gould-National Batteries, Inc.[15]
- General Electrical Company[15]
References
- ISBN 0-262-02180-3
- ^ "Project Sherwood and the origin of the annual Sherwood Fusion Theory Conference". Sherwood Fusion History.
- ^ Bromberg, p. 47
- ^ ISBN 978-1468308891.
- ^ Pfau, p. 209
- ISBN 9781258905354.
- ISBN 9781258905354.
- ISBN 9781258905354.
- ^ ISBN 9780262521062.
- ISBN 9781258905354.
- ISBN 9780201005752.
- ISBN 9780201005752.
- ISBN 9780201005752.
- ISBN 9780201005752.
- ^ ISBN 9780201005752.
- ISBN 9780262521062.