Too cheap to meter: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:15, 29 January 2020

Revision as of 16:21, 29 January 2020

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==Fusion or fission?==

Over time, Strauss's prediction did not come true, and over time it became a target of those pointing to the industry's record of overpromising and underdelivering. In 1980, the [[Atomic Industrial Forum]] wrote an article quoting Lewis H. Strauss, Strauss's son, claiming that he was not talking about fission, but fusion.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Report on public understanding of nuclear energy, #142 |date=May 1980 |editor1-first=Robert |editor1-last=Livingston |editor2-last=Bianchi |editor2-first=Ron |date=May 1980 |publisher=Atomic Industrial Forum}}</ref> As the AEC's [[Project Sherwood]] was still classified at the time, he was not allowed to refer to this work directly, thus causing confusion. Since that time, the claim has been widely repeated, including in 2003 comments by Donald Hintz, chairman of the Nuclear Energy Institute.{{sfn|Wellock|2016}}

To support this argument, Strauss and biographer Pfau point to statements made in which he noted "industry would have electrical power from atomic furnaces in five to fifteen years."{{sfn|Billington|2010|p=238}} However, this is not a direct quote, this version of the statement appeared in the ''[[New York Times]]'' overview of the speech the next day.<ref>{{cite news |title=Abundant Power from Atom Seen; It will be too cheap for our children to meter, Strauss tells science writers |newspaper=New York Times |date=17 September 1954 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1954/09/17/archives/abundant-power-from-atom-seen-it-will-be-too-cheap-for-our-children.html |p=5}}</ref> It is claimed that this timeline implies that Strauss was referring to fusion, not fission.{{sfn|Wellock|2016}}