ABSTRACT
On 25 January 1958 the journal Nature published a group of papers by both British and American authors containing the latest results in the field of nuclear fusion. The editorial accompanying them was effusive: ‘The announcement of the successful control of the thermonuclear reaction has now been made, and all the scientists and others concerned are to be congratulated on their magnificent achievement’ [1]. The Harwell paper listed twelve authors, headed by Dr P C Thonemann. It acknowledged the encouragement and support given to the research by Sir John Cockcroft and the late Lord Cherwell. Clearly, this paper was supposed to be the definitive statement on a most vexed subject and its publication, along with papers from both the AEI Laboratory at Aldermaston Court and from various American research institutions, was the outcome of protracted negotiations at the highest of levels. The mood in those British circles close to the fusion programme, over the preceding few months, had been one of exasperation at the intransigence of the Americans, whose own work was less advanced but whose real concerns were overwhelmingly related to security. There was, at least in some quarters of the US Administration, an almost paranoid fear that the massive flux of neutrons produced by a device like ZETA would enable small nations to ‘quietly set about making atomic bombs without entering on the costly business of building reactors like Windscale or separation plants like Oak Ridge’ [2].
