"On This Day" In Engineering History

This was fission - what happened with the Chinese FUSSION test on August 16, I believe, 2006?

Will the Chinese steal a march again and be the first with Fusion power?

Here's what I've found about the Chinese experiment with a fusion reactor. If the experiment was successful, it could help the U.S. (at least in the short term) by reducing Chinese consumption of oil and driving down prices.

Thanks Steve for this information - I notice in the poll about when Fusion will be commercially available, I see the majority agree with me it will be available within 21 years.

My firm prediction is it will also be Chinese - you have only to see the country and how things GET DONE here, to understand why.

The country has some of the smartest brains in the world in large numbers, and a Government which is little distracted from pursuing a course designed entirely in the best interests of the Country, firstly, and the World, secondly.

The country is literally awash with money due to it's extremely successful export policies and so there is virtually unlimited funds available for such expensive research and development, not only in the field of Fusion Power, but in just about everything else.

Also, they are little distracted by involvement in farcical foreign wars.

You're welcome. I agree with your prediction about the Chinese. They'll get the job done first. I found it interesting, too, that China is also involved in building the ITER reactor in France. They know how to hedge their bets, that's for sure.

All this deficit spending that our nation continues to do - and I wholeheartedly share your sentiment about "farcical foreign wars" - is a sign of an empire in decline. But I digress . . .

Thanks Moose, I am pleased to discover that I am not the only person on this planet who has these thoughts - as an Engineer, how do you reckon we can re-jig things to stop the wheels falling off our respective Countries?

Or, do we sit back and let the Chinese do all the work?

Do not forget that the Money sloshing about so well in China and funding such Projects as their Fusion Experiments, and I believe others as well, primarily comes from Western Sources - China's Foreign Trade Surplus for this year is going to about equal the Foreign Trade Deficit of the USA.

One reason why Bush wants China to revalue its currency, and no doubt why the whily Chinese are so reluctant to do so.

I wish I knew the answers, my friend. One thing that strikes me is that the adversary we face today is not our long-term strategic rival. The technological legacy of 9/11 is biothreat dection systems, virtual border fences, and more electronic survelliance - not fusion reactors. There's no "space race" with terrorist states (real or imagined), after all. Do you think a Sputnik-type even could cause our countries to revisit their priorites? The Pearl Harbor type events in New York, London and Madrid keep us rooted in the current conflict.

Also, here's a link to a past discussion about this subject on CR4.

I find it interesting that this comes up now. I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and he mentioned that there was a Chinese nuclear test late in 1966. My friend has turned into a bit of a "nut job"[his words] of late regarding the possibility of nuclear attacks by terrorists. He said he came across some recently declassified documents reporting that fallout from the 1966 Chinese test basically rained on the U.S. for three or four days in January 1967. The U.S. intelligence folks knew about it but failed to tell the public. I'm no conspiracy theorist, but based on my own observations of those whose ambitions lean toward public office, I wouldn't put it past them. Is there anything to this and what would be the long term effects of such an event?

The fallout fom the Chinese 1966 test would also have rained on the entire rest of the northern hemisphere - England, Europe and the then Soviet Union and Siberia and Japan, so you should also include them in your Conspiracy Theory to treat us all as Mushrooms - to be kept in the dark and fed b/s.

But what news of the August 16, 1000 second attempted controlled FUSION experiment by these same Chinese?

Has your friend read Nuclear War Survial Skills by Cresson H. Kearney? I haven't read the book myself, but came across excerpts while researching fallout from the 1966 Chinese test that you mention. Kearney isn't a crank. He's a Princeton-educated civil engineer who worked for Oak Ridge National Laboratory and received the U.S. Army's Decoration for Distinguished Civilian Service in 1972.

Kearney claims that the Chinese test of December 28, 1966 "produced fallout that by January 1, 1967 resulted in the fallout cloud covering most of the United States." The 15 million curies of iodine-131 that were released into the atomsphere were "roughly the same amount as the total release of iodine-131 into the atmosphere from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster." Although milk from cows in the Oak Ridge, Tennessee area was contaminated with radioiodine, the levels were not high enough to be hazardous to human health. If you're interested, there are some other excerpts from Kearney's book at this web site, which is run by a Texas-based radiological service.

I can't speak to your friend's claim that U.S. intelligence knew about the severity of the fallout and failed to warn the American public. The electronic briefing book at the National Security Archive (Geroge Washingtion University) is silent on this subject. I'm not a conspiracy theorist either (our government is much too incompetent), but may harden my opinion if I ever get around the reading The Plutonium Files: America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War.

In similar vein to the secret Plutonium expereiments and the subsequent coverups and so on, very little has ever been said about the secret prison camps run by the Japanese in Harbin in North East China on the effects of low temperatures on human subjects - in this case Prisoners-of-War - during the Japanese occupation of that part of China.

No War Crimes trials were ever carried out on the Camp personel who subjected helpless prisoners to extended exposures to below freezing temperatures in the fierce winters and it appears, many medical and administrative personnel were actively protected by the US Military in the post war period.

Some people in China still remember these camps, but are too polite to say much.

Thanks for passing this along. I'd read that NASA may have used some of the data from the Nazi low-temperature experiments, but didn't know about Harbin. I hope that those in China who still remember these camps will come forward and tell their story some day.

The Chinese remember only too well that 30,000,000 Chinese were killed by the Japanese who have never offered an apology for this slaughter.

I am hoping to receive soon from a distinguished 82year old Chinese Gentleman, who remembers Harbin well, either the name or a copy of a book written about these Japanese human freezing experiments.

Would you be willing to share the title of the book, or (if you receive a hard copy) write a brief book review for CR4? This would be a great subject for The Y Files.

Yes - if it eventuates.

I also have a paperback on the same topic, but it is in Autralia - when I return in December I will let you know.

all s okay but chinese quality is matter of concern when we talk of chinese products and bomb may not be an exception.............