Letter: Fusion Future

Sir: I too believe that fusion could provide an alternative to fossil fuels (Professor Josephson, letter, 3 June). I am proud to have been part of the team which demonstrated the production of 16MW of fusion power in JET, here in Oxfordshire, in 1997, using hot plasma with deuterium and tritium fuel.

Theory predicts, and observation confirms, that a fusion reaction of deuterium and tritium produces an energetic neutron and an alpha particle. Professor Josephson appears to believe that fusion can occur without the neutron being produced.

This is sufficiently startling, revolutionary even, that he should expect to be treated with scepticism until he can find either the missing science or the missing neutron.

In our experiment we measured the expected number of neutrons, the expected neutron energy and the plasma heating from alpha particles; and were also able to confirm earlier results published from experiments at Princeton, USA.

This reproducible experimental observation of theoretical prediction is the usual scientific method. It is such science that gives confidence that fusion will ultimately provide an alternative to fossil fuels.

PETER LOMAS

UKAEA

Abingdon, Oxfordshire