Texas Almanac, 1984-1985 Page: 60
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60 TEXAS ALMANAC 1984-1985
derstanding of the principles involved in plasma phys-
ics. Therefore the research programs are not designed
to develop a nuclear fusion power plant per se, but to
broaden the understanng of the fusion process that
will be necessary to bull such a generator. For exam-
ple, early in 1983, resea hers at Princeton University
received much national attention for successfully start-
ing up a Tokamak, similar to the one at UT-Austin. But
there is a major differ nce in the roles of these two
containment units in the national fusion research pro-
gram. The Princeton Tokamak is designed to test the
feasibility of generating power with a magnetic con-
tainment unit. Its goal is to generate more energy than
is necessary to ignite the fusion process.
In contrast, UT-Austin's Tokamak is a device used
in conducting experiments. "Our Tokamak was built
with entirely different criteria," Dr. Drummond ex-
plained. "For example, it is designed so that up to a
dozen experimenters can have access to it at one time.
Through these experiments, theories developed by the
theoretical scientists at the Institute for Fusion Studies
can be tested. It is our job-to determine the principles
on which fusion rests; not to build a working generator
on the UT campus."
That does not mean UT-Austin may never build a
working fusion generator. Onecould be built at the Bal-
cones Research Center in northwest Austin.
Fusion is attained by heating the fuel - two iso-
topes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium, in experi-
mental Tokamaks - to 100 million degrees centigrade
(the temperature of the sun). The heat strips the elec-
trons from the nuclei to form a plasma that is then con-
densed to forc the free nuclei to fuse. During the com-
bination, energy is released.
SThe theory is deceptively simple, and development
of a practical process for accomplishing fusion has
proved more difficult to perfect than scientists thought
would be the case in the 1950s. Any application of the
theory must accomplish three difficult steps simulta-
neously: Reach the necessary temperature to create
the plasma; maintain a density within the plasma to
force combination of the nuclei, and start a chain reac-
tion within the plasma to release more energy than is
needed to ignite the process.
Plasma physics is a new science developed to ex-
plain the baffling behavior of atomic particles at ex-
tremely high temperatures. Plasmas exist in space, but
not on earth. So scientists virtually started from scratch
to learn the principles necessary to exploit fusion ener-
gy. 'The process depends on extremely subtle consid-
erations," Dr. Drummond explained. For example, im-
purities get into the Tokamak and tend to absorb
energy from the plasma. If too many impurities are
present, the energy is radiated away as light. "It is im-
portant to understand how to manage these impuri-
ties," he added.
For example, where do the impurities want to go: to
the outside walls of the containment unit, or to the cen-
ter of the plasma? "We have accumulated hundreds of
man-years of theoretical work on these impurities,"
Dr. Drummond declared. "But each of the theoriesmust be- tested. We simply don't know. And that is
where UT's Tokamak comes in. With it we can make the
necessary experiments to determine what is happening
and which theory is correct. And it is the onlyTokamak
in the national fusion program designed to do these
types of experiments."
Technology for the Tokamak was developed by
Russian scientists at the Kuchatov Institute in Moscow
in the mid-1960s, and it is a donut-shaped vessel built in
-a circular design in which the fuel is heated to a plasma
state. The density of the plasma is maintained with a
magnetic field. The so-called magnetic containment
unit is the basic design that most American scientists
use to develop a prototype fusion generator. And it is in
this field that UT-Austin scientists are directing their
attention, although some have worked on theoretical
considerations of an inertial containment or laser fu-
sion process being tested at Livermore Laboratories in
California.
Fusion research is expensive, and the federal gov-
ernment is spending upward of 5500 milliona year on its
support. Have there been any dramatic spinoff bene-
fits, such as those in the space program? Maybe not of a
tangible sort. But Dr. Drummond pointed out that fu-
sion research has prompted development of an entirely
new science: plasma physics. "This science is now ap-
plied to astronomy and space research and will make
contributions to national defense," he said. "There are
now other technologies that depend on plasma physics.
And this is a benefit."
But practical fusion generators may not be in use
for many.years. "Two or three phases must be passed
through," Dr. Drummond explained. "We've never
demonstrated that fusion is feasible. To dothat, the
process must produc e more energy than is put into it.
This feasibility is being tested by at least three ma-
chines now - at Princeton, in Europe and in Japan.
Only one needs to succeed. When fusion proves practi-
cal, then we must determine if it is safe and economical
This is where engineering comes in, and that will take
20 years. We might see a significant number of fusion
power plants by 2020 A.D. The major danger is to devel-
op a plant when the engineering is not totally perfected.
Then we could be tied into an uneconomical design.
That has occurred in some of the present nuclear fission
plants. We want to avoid that with fusion."
However, the promise of fusion appears to be worth
the risk. "li you talk about energy over the long haul -
for the centuries to come - there are very few inex-
haustible sources." Dr. Drummond declared. "Solar
energy is one. Fusion is the other. The reason is that the
fuel for fusion comes from the waters of earth. For ex-
ample, the water in Lake Austin could produce more
energy than all the oil in the Middle East. And fusion is
attractive from the environmental point of view. It is
the only way to produce energy without the production
of a large amount of excess heat. Development of fusion
has been called the most difficult scientific challenge of
the 20th century."
But the University of Texas at Austin has taken up
the gauntlet with its attention to and leadership in fu-
sion research.Medicine Was Texas' First Science
This review of medical research in Texas was prepared by Bob Fenley, Director of the Office of Medical Information,
the University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas.The first surgical procedure recorded in North
America was performed somewhere in Texas ih 1535 by
the Spanish explorer Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. Lat-
er, pioneers, who grappled with a frontier environ-
ment, retained that spirit of medical initiative. Wheth-
er puzzled and saddened by widespread death in yellow
fever and cholera epidemics, or stoically nursing
wounds of war, Texans have exhibited a concern for
health that undergirds the phenomenal recent growth
of medical science in the state.
Texans learned that a modern era of medicine was
under way in December of 1964. The Duke of Windsor
arrived in Houston to have an aneurysm (a swelling of
an artery) repaired by Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, a cardio-
vascular surgeon. The physician had saved the life of a
child of former King Leopold III of Belgium two years
earlier. But world attention was not focused on Texas
until the late Duke of Windsor's aneurysm was correct-
ed. Thus, Houston was recognized as a world center for
cardiovascular surgery, and Dr. DeBakey, now head of
Bylor Colege of Medicine, was looked upon as a medi-
cal pioneer.
Following the first successful transplant of a humanheart by Christiaan Barnard of South Africa, Dr. Denton
Cooley, another Houston surgeon, performed a similar
heart transfer-the first in the United States-on May 3,
1968. National attention again was focused on Texas.
Both DeBakey and Cooley, now surgeon-in-chief of
the Texas Headrt Institute of St. Luke's Episcopal and Texas
Children's Hospitals, continued pioneering work. Dr.'
Cooley implanted two plastic hearts in 1969 and 1981.
While these events captured public attention, a quieter,
but no less significant, growth of both basic and clinical
biomedical research has taken place in Texas.
Topics of Research
By 1983, medical scientists in Texas were competing
in a world-class search for keys to some of the most
prized of nature's secrets.
Many mysteries were under examination. For ex-
ample, how can the human body's own mechanisms be
harnessed to attack afflictions such as cancer or to reg-
ulate the amount of fat in the blood? One arena of
investigation was the amazingly sophisticated recogni-
tion system called "cell surface receptors," which ap-
parently have an almost uncanny ability to sort out and
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Texas Almanac, 1984-1985, book, 1983; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth113817/m1/62/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.