Fusion - the search for endless energy

After the first H-bomb was exploded, it was thought that fusion would follow much the same path as fission - it would quickly become a source of power generation. However, although in priniciple we know how to use fusion to generate electricity, putting it into practice has turned out to be much harder than expected. This describes the long struggle for a working fusion reactor. Books on the history of technology can sometimes be somewhat dull, but Herman manages to avoid this by skillfully mixing biographical details of the participants with information about the technology and the politics behind the funding. As such it gives an insight into 'Big Science' - how an area goes from struggling for limited funds to getting ever larger amounts of money from the state.

Herman highlights the constant tension between those scientists wanting to do pure plasma research, and those wanting to get ahead as quickly as possible by building a big machine and seeing what it could do - with hindsight devoting money to pure research looks preferable, but the idea that the next machine will open the door to unlimited energy is just too tempting. The book was written in 1990, but since fusion is a slow moving area it hasn't become out of date. (ITER is not scheduled for completion until 2016). I did feel that more space could have been devoted to the area of cold fusion, which only gets a few pages, and possibly less to the political machinations of the late 1980's