Fusion Books for General Readers

[Ivy Matt]

The other night I was at Borders looking to spend a couple of gift cards. I visited the science section and was struck by several things. The copy of Sun in a Bottle that had been there a few months ago was gone. Presumably it had been sold. With its disappearance there was, as far as I could tell, no book specifically on nuclear fusion in the bookstore. There were plenty of books on astronomy, organic evolution, quantum physics, and so on, for general audiences, but nothing on fusion—or plasmas, for that matter. So, what’s lacking here? Is it on the supply side or the demand side? Or are people interested in nuclear fusion more likely to get their information from the Internet than from books?

I don’t have the answers to those questions, but it is my impression that very few books on fusion intended for a general audience have been published since Sun in a Bottle. I had been quietly following the progress of a book purportedly by one James Riordan titled Star Power: The Promise of Nuclear Fusion, but it seems to have been a dud, if not a scam. Some sources (e.g. Amazon.com) give it a publication date of July 26, 2010, others (e.g. Amazon.co.uk) give it a date of July 26, 2009, and Barnes & Noble gave it a publication date of December 1, 2010. It has since been removed from the Barnes & Noble website, and I suspect it was never published. Good thing I had the sense not to pre-order it.

On a brighter note, here are a few recent and upcoming fusion books that I expect will be (or have been) published:

21st Century Essential Guide to NIF – National Ignition Facility – Laser Inertial Confinement Nuclear Fusion for Energy Research and National Security, LIFE Power Concept

This is an e-book, published December 17 or 18, 2010. It is described as a synthesis of official government information that is already publicly available. I’m guessing most of it’s taken from the NIF website.

An Indispensable Truth: How Fusion Power Can Save the Planet by Francis F. Chen

To be published March 1, 2011. This is an argument in favor of nuclear fusion as an energy source. As the title indicates, an important argument of Chen’s book concerns a topic that has been embargoed on these forums, although the blurb promises the book will “give a concise, clear, impartial picture of the facts, separate from conjecture and sensationalism”. That would be nice. Given that the blurb offers “hydrogen fusion energy” as the solution to our energy needs, and that one of the back cover quotes is from the director of the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, I expect this book will focus primarily, if not entirely, on the tokamak. Chen has a Ph.D. in physics, and has been a professor of plasma physics and electrical engineering. He has published several works for plasma physicists, notably Introduction to Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion.

Fusion (Nuclear Power) by James A. Mahaffey

To be published April 30, 2011. I don’t have much information on this title except that the publisher is Facts on File. I assume it will focus on the basic ideas of nuclear fusion and, to the extent that it examines confinement methods, will mostly cover tokamaks and lasers. This is part of a series of books on nuclear power that the author is writing for Facts on File. Another title that may be of interest is The Future of Nuclear Power, also to be published on April 30, 2011. Mahaffey has a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering and is a proponent of conventional nuclear power.

Wonders of Nuclear Fusion: Creating an Ultimate Energy Source (Barbara Guth Worlds of Wonder Science Series for Young Readers) by Neal Singer

To be published May 15, 2011. Although from the title this sounds like it should be a good introduction to nuclear fusion for general readers, both the cover illustration and the blurb (on the Amazon USA website) appear to indicate that the book will focus largely, if not entirely, on Sandia’s Z Machine. Singer is a science writer for Sandia National Laboratories.

Nuclear Power: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Maxwell Irvine

To be published in May or June, 2011. Another argument in favor of conventional nuclear power. I’m only including this title because in the blurb on the Amazon UK (but not the Amazon USA) website it says the book will also consider “the potential of nuclear fusion”. Also, according to the Oxford University Press website, one of the book’s eight chapters will be devoted to nuclear fusion. Irvine has a Ph.D., presumably in physics, is an honorary professor of physics at Manchester University, and has published several works on physics, nuclear structure, and neutron stars.

There’s a lot more out there on plasma physics and nuclear fusion, but most of it’s aimed at physicists, engineers, and university students in those fields. Sun in a Bottle was written for general readers, is a good read, and is rather informative if you read it as a history of fusion research. For better or worse, it fills a gap. (Not entirely true: there’s Fusion: Science, Politics, and the Invention of a New Energy Source by Joan Lisa Bromberg, but it’s nearly thirty years old and not likely to be found on store bookshelves.)

[Aeronaut]

Fusion: Science, Politics, and the Invention of a New Energy Source by Joan Lisa Bromberg, but it’s nearly thirty years old and not likely to be found on store bookshelves.

Now that title could spark general interest! And 30 years is about what it took the 70’s looks to be recycled…

[mchargue]

Ivy Matt wrote:
21st Century Essential Guide to NIF – National Ignition Facility – Laser Inertial Confinement Nuclear Fusion for Energy Research and National Security, LIFE Power Concept

This is an e-book, published December 17 or 18, 2010. It is described as a synthesis of official government information that is already publicly available. I’m guessing most of it’s taken from the NIF website.

Would you have a link to the e-book mentioned?

Pat

[Ivy Matt]

Pick your poison:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

[Allan Brewer]

Ivy Matt wrote: There’s a lot more out there on plasma physics and nuclear fusion, but most of it’s aimed at physicists, engineers, and university students in those fields.

So does Eric recommend any specific textbook on plasma for those of us who want to learn the science??

[Rezwan]

Eric’s recommendation is Cosmological Hydrodynamics by Alfven.

[Breakable]

I just got one recommendation (did not read it yet) : Behemoth: The Story of Power
A history of power development from 1600s to 1930s.

[Ivy Matt]

Here’s a fairly new one for a general audience:

A Piece of the Sun: The Quest for Fusion Energy by Daniel Clery

Published June 27, 2013. Clery was a news editor for [em]Science[/em] magazine who decided to write a book on the history of fusion. He shelved the idea when he heard his former colleague, Charles Seife, was working on a similar project. When he read Seife’s book, however, he decided to go ahead with his project, presumably partly as a response to Seife. I haven’t read Clery’s book yet, but I am interested, although I don’t know to what extent he covers alternative confinement concepts and aneutronic fusion. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find a table of contents or index online.

From Clery’s blog I found a reference to another recent book:

Star Chambers – The Race For Fusion Power by Melanie Windridge

Published September 21, 2012. It’s a very basic introduction to fusion, based on a series of blog posts Windridge wrote as the Institute of Physics lecturer in 2012. It focuses on tokamaks, which is not surprising, considering Windridge did her PhD research at JET.

EDIT:

[em]A Piece of the Sun[/em] table of contents courtesy of WorldCat:

Why Fusion? —
Britain : Thonemann and the Pinch —
United States : Spitzer and the Stellarator —
Russia : Artsimovich and the Tokamak —
Tokamaks Take Over —
Fusion by Laser —
One Big Machine —
If Not Now, When?

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