Open Letter to the Project Manager
Mégajoule Project
Mr. Francis Kovacs
September 10, 2002
Upon returning from a trip abroad, I posted on my website a preliminary dossier on a matter that is far from settled—the French policy regarding nuclear armaments. Indeed, it is known that France conducted its last underground nuclear tests (officially) at Mururoa in 1996. At the time, we were told that nuclear weapons research would henceforth continue in France through "computer calculations" and "simulations" carried out using a "Mégajoule" test bench, to be installed in Bordeaux. When I learned this, I was immediately highly skeptical. The truth is, laser fusion is not unfamiliar to me: in 1976, I became the first non-American to operate a neodymium terawatt laser at the "Janus" facility in Livermore, California.
Laser fusion has turned out to be a disappointing endeavor. It is relatively easy to understand why. In experiments at Livermore, for instance, a millimeter-sized spherical target filled with a mixture of heavy hydrogen—deuterium-tritium—is coated with a thin layer of a substance called a "pusher." The sphere is irradiated by multiple laser beams directed at it. The pusher vaporizes and expands. This expansion compresses the fusion fuel inside the sphere. The Janus experiment (1976) used two lasers and was intended to be followed by a "Shiva" experiment involving 24 lasers. It is possible to "tile" a sphere using 12 pentagons, forming a geometry known as a dodecahedron (dodeca meaning twelve in Greek). Twenty-four is a multiple of twelve. This number 24 is therefore not arbitrary—it represents an effort to deposit laser energy uniformly on the sphere's surface via the pusher. Unfortunately, the experiment failed to deliver the expected results. Using an analogy, imagine trying to compress pancake batter in your hand by squeezing it between your fingers. Clearly, the batter will escape between your fingers. In laser fusion, the same problem arises: it is impossible to achieve spherical symmetry in energy deposition on a sphere (in space and time). To achieve fusion, however, it is essential to compress the material by a factor of ten in radius—thus a thousandfold in volume—compressing a medium in liquid or solid state (depending on the cooling temperature of heavy hydrogen, which is below minus 200 degrees Celsius). The resulting temperature and density increases are such that "Lawson conditions" (conditions under which fusion can occur) can be met in a system known as "inertial confinement." Yet, it has never been possible to control this compression with spherical symmetry.
Yet, remarkably, the French are entering the field decades after the Americans have effectively abandoned it. Do they possess super-lasers? No. At CESTA (Scientific and Technical Center of Aquitaine), two (old) neodymium lasers, each with a power of one terawatt, have been installed in the "LIL" (Laser Integration Line)—supplied by the United States, remnants of an earlier experiment that had eight lasers ("Nova"), which also failed to produce results. The Mégajoule facility currently exists only as stunning computer-generated images. It is supposed to include 240 laser beams, each with one terawatt of power. However, as shown in an illustration accompanying this letter, the target has spherical symmetry. The heating system, very "artisanal," consists of injecting 120 laser beams through each of two circular openings on opposite faces of a one-centimeter-diameter cylinder. The interior of the cylinder is coated with a thin gold layer, with the hope that this setup will behave like an axisymmetric oven. A mere wishful dream.
The reader may obtain this information by requesting from CESTA in Bordeaux, Power Lasers Department, 15 Avenue des Salières, BP2, 33114 Le Barp (phone: 05 57 04 41 45), a color brochure titled "Le Laser Mégajoule," published by them and describing the key elements of the project.
Elsewhere, the goal is to achieve fusion of a mixture of two hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium, which must necessarily be cooled to extremely low temperatures (-200°C). Yet, no hydrogen bomb actually operates with such a fusion mixture. All are "dry bombs," constructed around a solid lithium-hydrogen mixture (Li⁷H¹), stable at ordinary temperatures. Therefore, even if such hydrogen isotope fusion experiments were to succeed—which is far from certain—it remains completely unclear how scientists could extract any useful information relevant to the mechanisms actually at work in a "real" hydrogen bomb.
I will develop further in the coming days elements allowing one to form an opinion on this "Mégajoule project," which, in my view, is a "smokescreen project" intended to conceal a highly disturbing reality: that the French continue conducting underground experiments... on their own territory. We will explain how such experiments could be carried out with sufficient attenuation of the seismic signal from the explosions.
Officially, for the past ten years, the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom have ceased underground nuclear explosions (in Nevada for the U.S., in Siberia and Australia for the U.K., and at similar sites for Russia). Who would be naive enough to believe such a claim? All these countries are simply now practicing "stealth nuclear explosions," the technique of which will be described. The Americans and Russians are fortunate to possess desert regions within their territories. The British can also exploit sites located in Australia. But where can the French, having been expelled from their Pacific test sites, continue their tests?
A good question...
Some might say, "Is it really necessary to continue nuclear testing? Don't we already possess all the information needed to design these weapons at any desired yield, simply using a computer?" The answer is no. Indeed, low-yield bombs are key elements in the development of microwave weapons, for example. To refrain from developing such weapons would mean losing all strategic credibility. France cannot abandon these underground tests. In July 2002, I sent the letter below to Francis KOVACS, manager of the Mégajoule project. This registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt followed a previous "ordinary letter" sent to the same person one month earlier. As with the previous letter, it remains unanswered, and I strongly doubt the recipient could actually respond to such troubling questions. It is regrettable that no French journalist has raised these issues. Is it due to lack of...