Project Sherwood facts for kids

Project Sherwood was a secret program in the United States. It was all about trying to create nuclear fusion in a controlled way. Think of fusion as the power that makes the sun shine!

After 1958, scientists around the world started sharing their fusion research. Project Sherwood then became a regular part of the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and wasn't secret anymore.

The project started around 1951 from several smaller research efforts. One important part was the stellarator program at Princeton University, which had its own secret name: Project Matterhorn. Other labs, like Los Alamos and Livermore, also wanted to join. They worked on different ways to control fusion, like z-pinch and magnetic mirror devices. By 1953, the money spent on these projects grew to millions of dollars. This meant the AEC needed to keep a closer eye on everything.

The name "Sherwood" was suggested by Paul McDaniel from the AEC. He noticed that money from another project was being moved to this new fusion program. He joked that they were "robbing Hood to pay Friar Tuck." This was a fun reference to the famous Robin Hood stories and to a British fusion scientist named James L. Tuck. That's how the project got its name!

Lewis Strauss, who was in charge of the AEC, really wanted to keep the program a secret. But the United Kingdom pushed for the research to be made public. This happened at the second Atoms for Peace meeting in 1958. After this, many non-government groups also started holding meetings about fusion. The American Physical Society organized meetings that are still held today. They are now called the International Sherwood Fusion Theory Conference. The original Project Sherwood simply became known as the Controlled Thermonuclear Research program within the AEC.

What Were the Main Ideas?

Scientists focused on three main ways to hold the super-hot plasma (a gas of charged particles) in place. These were needed to make fusion happen.

• The stellarator: This was led by Lyman Spitzer at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
• The toroidal pinch (also called Perhapsatron): This was led by James L. Tuck at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
• The magnetic mirror devices: These were at the Livermore National Laboratory and led by Richard F. Post.

By 1954, a plan for a huge "Model D" stellarator was ready. It would be over 500 feet (150 m) long and could make a lot of electricity. But each idea faced unexpected problems. The plasma was unstable, meaning it wouldn't stay hot and dense enough. It became clear that creating steady hydrogen fusion would take a long time.

When Lewis Strauss left the AEC in 1958, the new leader wasn't as excited about fusion research. So, Project Sherwood changed from a super-fast program to one that focused more on basic science.

How Much Money Was Spent?

Project Sherwood started with money from another program called Project Lincoln. As more people joined the fusion research, the budget grew. Under Strauss, the program was reorganized, and its funding and staff increased a lot.

From early 1954 to 1955, the number of people working on Project Sherwood went from 45 to 110. The next year, that number doubled! The first budget from Project Lincoln was $1 million. Here's how the budget grew over the years:

At its highest point, Project Sherwood had a budget of $23 million per year. More than 500 scientists worked on it!

Why Did Project Sherwood Become Public?

Making the program public was a big topic among scientists. At first, it was kept secret because if controlled fusion worked, it would be a huge advantage for military power. Fusion creates high-energy particles called neutrons. These could be used to make materials for nuclear weapons. If a small fusion machine was possible, it could be a risk for many countries to make bombs.

But as it became clear how hard it was to build a working fusion reactor, fears of secret reactors faded. Also, some companies needed to work on parts of the project, like building large stellarators or creating super-empty spaces (ultra-high vacuum). They needed access to the secret information. In 1956, the Commission started allowing qualified companies to get permits for the research information.

Between 1955 and 1958, more and more information became public. It started with sharing details with the United Kingdom. People like Thomas Johnson and Amasa Stone Bishop from the Division of Research strongly supported making the project public. They argued that keeping it secret made it hard to hire experienced scientists. They also felt it limited how scientists could discuss their findings. If it was public, scientists could freely talk about their work with others in the scientific community.

In 1956, a Soviet physicist named Igor Kurchatov gave a talk in the UK. He openly shared everything about the Soviet fusion program and the problems they faced. This meant that the group the classification was meant to hide was at about the same stage of development. So, there was no clear reason to keep it secret anymore.

The UK had also kept their program secret after the Klaus Fuchs spy case in 1950. But in 1957, they thought they had successfully created fusion in their new ZETA machine. They really wanted to tell the world! Their agreement with the US meant they had to keep their work secret. Now, they also started pushing the US to agree to make the research public.

By May 1958, basic information about the different projects within Project Sherwood, like the stellarators and magnetic mirrors, was released to the public.

Other Fusion Programs That Grew

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

In the early 1950s, Oak Ridge National Laboratory had a small group of scientists. They mostly worked with ion-source technology. But they became very interested in Project Sherwood's research. They studied things like how plasma moves in a magnetic field. Their work with ion sources was still a big part of what they did.

University of California

The University of California already had a main project (magnetic mirror). But in 1952, scientist W. R. Baker started research on the pinch effect at UCRL, Berkeley. Two years later, Stirling Colgate began studying shock-heating at UCRL, Livermore.

Tufts College, Medford

A small group of scientists at Tufts College in Medford, Massachusetts, also got involved in studying the pinch effect. Even though their work wasn't officially part of the Atomic Energy Commission, some of their staff attended the Sherwood conferences.

New York University

In 1954, a small program called the Division of Research started at New York University. It included scientists from the Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University.

Other Programs (1955–1958)

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Carnegie Institute
• Westinghouse Electric Corporation
• Gould-National Batteries, Inc.
• General Electrical Company