RECORD HIGH LEVELS OF FUSION POWER AND ENERGY
have been observed at the Joint European Torus (JET) device in
England. A peak power of 13 MW was reached and a power
output of 10 MW was sustained for at least a half second, pretty
impressive achievements for a fusion experiment. The burning of
the deuterium-tritium fuel inside the chamber, and the production
of alpha particles (which, if they can be contained, aid the heating),
went according to schedule, bolstering expectations that the
proposed International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)
would work as planned. (Nature, 6 Nov.)
CHANNELING OF PARTICLE BEAMS USING NANOTUBES
may be possible. Tests at Fermilab and elsewhere have shown that
high-energy beams can be deflected by the rows of atoms in suitably
bent crystals (see Update 261). Now scientists at the Erevan
Physical Institute in Armenia have proposed that crystals, or
"ropes," of single-walled nanotubes (SWNT's) would be even
better as efficient beam channeling materials since the carbon
nanotubes' large bore (13.8 angstrom diameter) allows plenty of
room for the passage of particle beams. (L.A. Gevorgyan et al.,
10 Sept. 1997, JETP (Journal of Experimental and Theoretical
Physics) Letters, a Russian journal, with English translation
published by AIP.)