UNCLASSIFIED _

———

PHYSICAL RESEARCH

Nquid nitrogen, Cooling of the chamber to the temperature of Hquid nitrogen (-195° centigrade)
was accomplished, A Horton sphere 22 feet in diameter was constructed adjacent to the bubble
chamber for storage of liquid hydrogen and for use as a discharge reservoir in caseof emergency,

Oak Ridge Nationa) Laboratory
.

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ok

The site w2s selected for construction of the cyclotron, authorized as project 59-e-14,
Basic magnet design for the Oak Ridge cyclotron is now firm and features a three-fold azlmuthally varying magnetic field which will provide suitable focusing forces for the fixedfrequency acceleration of protons at energies up to 75 million electron volts (Mev), Moreover,
because of a wice range of control of average magnetic field strength and configuration and

because of the incorporation of a variable radiofrequency system, it will be possible to accelerate heavier particles such as helium, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, neon, and argon to energies up to 100 Mev.
°
Yale University

The operating schedule for the Yale heavy ion Hnear accelerator (HILAC) was increased

to incorporate an additional operating shift. To make the machine available for additional experiments, preparations were begun to double the pulse rate of five per second and to mit to

one half a week out of each 4 weeks the period for machine development and scheduled maintenance, Universities possessing accelerators have experienced a general increase in the
demand for operating time to perform research,

CONTROLLED THERMONUCLEAR RESEARCH
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Geneva Conference

A major part of the time of key SEERWOOD Jaboratory personnel was devoted.to the final
preparation of exhibits, and the setting up and dismantling of these exhibits in Geneva, All
exhibits operated satisfactorily during the Conference and were generally acknowledged to be
successful and impressive.
On August 30, the Chairman of the United States Delegation, Lewis L. Strauss, and the
Chairman of the United Kingdom Delegation announced complete declassification of the programs of both countries for research on the control of thermonuclear reactions.* The vast
bulk of information relating to controlled thermonuclear research had been previously declassified, the mcst recent previous major action having been announced jointly in January 1958.
During the Conference it became known that the USSR (1) is working on the pinch approach at a level comparable with the United States— United Kingdom effort, (2) does not appear to have 2 strong effort along the lines of the Stellarator, and (3) has built a series of
experimental devices of increasing size to investigate high energy ion injection into mirror
geometries. This latter effort parallels the mirror programs at O2k Ridge National Laboratory and the University of California Radiation Laboratory at Livermore.
RusSian theoreticians discussed a new form of energy radiation loss which they expect
may occur in very hot plasmas. This loss is associated with the spiraling of fast electrons
in a magnetic field and, when coupied with ordinary bremsstrahlung losses, may require higher
operating tex-peratures for an ultimate thermonuclear power producer.

DOE A

RCEIVES

nouncing this Cecision were described in a letter to the Joint Committee dated August 28, 1958.

UNCLASSIFED

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