GETTING OUT OF (THIS) NUCLEAR
THE FUKUSHIMA LESSON
April 11, 2011
Some readers may have been surprised to see this page change its title over time. Initially, I had titled it "Getting Out of (This) Nuclear," because I still harbored the illusion that solutions might emerge from cutting-edge technologies, such as aneutronic fusion using Boron-11 + Hydrogen-1. A new kind of fusion opened up by the fantastic 2006 experiment, carried out fortuitously in the Sandia laboratories, New Mexico, by Chris Deeney's team. The work was analyzed by English physicist Malcolm Haines, a pioneer in plasma physics. It was published in 2006 in Physical Review Letters under the title "Over two billion degrees." The news immediately caught my attention, and a few months later I published a rigorous analysis of the article.
In September 2008, I attended the Vilnius Conference on High-Power Pulsed Systems, where I had the opportunity to speak at length with Keith Matzen, head of the Z-machine (the device used to obtain the results published in Physical Review Letters, producing 18 million amperes). Z-machine had become ZR (Z refurbished) starting in 2008. I was stunned to hear from Matzen himself and his assistant Mac Kee that the article in question was not valid, that Haines had made errors in analyzing the spectra, etc.
Why hadn’t Matzen published a correction? "To avoid upsetting good old Haines."
Who could believe such a fairy tale?
When questioned, Gerold Yonas, whom I had met personally in 1976, replied: "This concerns me. I’ll ask Matzen to publish a corrective article."
It was never published.
In October 2008, Sytgar was supposed to attend the Jeju Conference in Korea—where I was present—to present the results from ZR, but he did not show up. Pretext: "His father was seriously ill." However, after checking with the secretariat, I discovered he hadn’t even registered for the conference. Strange, for someone who, along with 18 other signatories, was supposed to present his work at the most important international conference on Z-machine.
As soon as the chairman adjourned the session after announcing Sytgar’s absence, Oliver from Sandia rushed toward me, insisting I stop spreading lies, that Haines had made a mistake—period. Subsequently, at my request, he assured me Sandia "would publish a corrective article in 2011."
I’m ready to bet that this corrective article will never see the light of day. Because Haines was not wrong—neither in interpreting the experimental data nor in his calculations. It’s impossible to claim otherwise, impossible to provide scientific arguments that would refute his conclusions.
So what?
Then the Americans are disinforming, because this result should never have been published. Because if it represents a fantastic hope for humanity—offering non-polluting fusion producing only helium as waste—it also represents the key to creating new "pure fusion bombs." In these, fusion reactions could be triggered by an MHD compressor, not by an atomic bomb, which cannot be miniaturized due to the critical mass problem (which sets a lower limit on fusion, achievable only through the explosion of several hundred tons of TNT).
These compressors were invented by the Russians in the 1950s. I explain all this on my website (&&& I’ll add the links now, but I can’t do so because I’ve burned a hard drive).
During my trip to Brighton in January 2001, I met Americans working on "black programs," and I was shocked to realize the only thing that interested them in UFO files was the possibility of developing new weapons based on new concepts: hypersonic torpedoes, supersonic aircraft with "MHD-controlled" air intakes.
Back then, the shock was already severe. But with this story of aneutronic fusion and its immediate military exploitation, the circle closes: these bombs can be miniaturized. And thus... they can be used. Moreover, by choosing the boron-hydrogen formula, one could even obtain an "ecological bomb."
I am utterly disgusted.
I go even further: today’s scientists have no conscience whatsoever. They can be bought for a few coins. I recall an issue of the Corriere du CNRS in which Charpentier, then director of the "Physical Sciences for Engineering" department, wrote: "The Army does not have enough contracts to satisfy researchers' demands."
New genetic manipulation techniques discovered? After a brief moratorium, we’re already dealing with GMOs. Researchers develop new medicines in the form of "new molecules," naturally protected by patents. The World Health Organization launches a vaccination campaign that... makes people sick. The agri-food industry adds additives to food that degrade our health. Agricultural research turns a blind eye to the vile motives of fertilizer and sterile seed sellers.
The French polytechnicians of the "Corps des Mines" created an atomic empire in France. You’ll read the confidential report circulated internally at AREVA, analyzing "The Impact of the Fukushima Events on the Nuclear Power Market." Soon we may even find nuclear waste in construction materials and packaging.
And what about science? Nothing meaningful for decades now. Theoretical physicists are knitting socks for winter with superstrings. At the gigantic CERN Hadron Collider in Geneva, Higgs boson hunters remain empty-handed. At Cadarache, nuclear technocrats promise us "the sun in a test tube," after launching a 1.5 trillion euro project into the deepest technological fog (ITER