Table 1 Fusion reactions 1) D -f D -+ He + n + 3.25 Mev 2) D + D — T + p + 4 Mev 3) T + D -» He + n + 17.6 Mev 4) He + D -> He + p + 18.3 Mev 5) Li« + D _^ 2He + 22.4 Mev 6) Li + p — 2He + 17.3 Mev S research proj ects on nuclear fusion are under way in this country and, no doubt, similar efforts are taking place elsewhere in the world. Project Sherwood, at Los Alamos, directed.by Amasa S. Bishop, and Project Matterhorn, at Princeton, directed by Lyman Spitzer, Jr., are the best known of these. Research is also being conducted at the radiation laboratories at Berkeley and Livermore. The great effort concentrated on the research on the nature of fusion processes and their practical application is hopefully believed to solve all energy problems. The sources of fossil fuels such as coal and oil are running short and will eventually be exhausted. Even though new oil reserves are discovered every day, no prospector will promise the supply will last for more than another hundred years at the present consumption. I t seems a great waste to utilize coal and petroleum for simple burning or combustion when they can be more effectively used in the chemical industry as raw materials. Ten years ago papers optimistically described the glorious future of a civilization based on the utilization of fission energy; today the picture has changed. Processable reserves of fissionable materials such as uranium and thorium will last only a few centuries at the expected increase in energy consumption. Another serious problem is introduced in the form of radioactive waste from the fission reactors. Even today reactor stations must employ ingenious methods to reduce the over-all weight of radioactive end products. Fusion reactions, however, render no appreciable amount of hazardous material. Finally, the cost per energy unit of fusion materials, such as deuterium, is only a small percentage of the cost of fissionable materials, which must be extracted from low-grade ore. Solar energy is often mentioned as a potential energy source. There is little doubt that the collection of the heat from the sun will support the energy need of future generations, but solar energy is not sufficient as the single source. These considerations, then, are the basis for intensive research in the scientific world on fusion. I