Huemul Project
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2008-05-12T06:46:33Z
Jclerman
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restoration of one of several statements "lost"
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The '''Huemul Project''' ([[Spanish language|Spanish]]: ''Proyecto Huemul'') was a secret project proposed by the [[Germany|German]] scientist of [[Austria]]n origin [[Ronald Richter]] to the government of [[Argentina]] during the first [[President of Argentina|presidency]] of [[Juan Perón|Juan Domingo Perón]].
In 1948, Richter convinced Perón that he could produce [[nuclear fusion]] energy before any other country based in a [[lithium]]-[[deuterium]] nuclear reaction and deliver it in milk-bottle type/size containers.
The present state of the art in fusion research is for example, the [[United States dollar|$]]12 billion [[ITER]] multinational project, which uses a [[tokamak]]-like configuration to reach and maintain the high temperatures and plasma densities needed for fusion ([[Lawson criterion]], 1957). The initial temperatures achieved by Richter's device were orders of magnitude lower, and too low for producing fusion events at a rate high enough to obtain higher temperatures.
== The project ==
During [[World War II]] German scientists under [[Walther Gerlach]] and [[Kurt Diebner]] carried out experiments to explore the possibility of inducing [[thermonuclear|thermonuclear reactions]] in [[deuterium]] using high explosive-driven convergent shock waves, following [[Guderley]]'s famous convergent [[shock wave]] solution. At the same time Richter proposed in a memorandum to German government officials the induction of nuclear fusion through shock waves by high-velocity particles shot in to a highly compressed deuterium [[Plasma (physics)|plasma]] contained in an ordinary [[uranium]] vessel. The proposal was not carried through.<ref> See [[Rainer Karlsch]], ''[[Hitler's Bomb]]'' (DVA, Germany, 2005) </ref>
Recommended to Perón by [[Kurt Tank]], Richter convinced Peron that he could produce controlled nuclear fusion using cheap materials in a process that could supply cheap energy in enormous quantities, a program that eventually became known as the Huemul Project. Perón's reasons for backing Richter were in line with the ideology of modernization underlaying his concept of the "New Argentina"; he was not interested in the military applications of atomic energy but rather saw it as a way to expand iron and steel production.<ref name=cabral>{{citation | last = Cabral | first = Regis | authorlink = Regis Cabral | editor-last = Saldana | editor-first = J. J. | coauthors = | title = The Peron - Richter Fusion Program, 1948 - 1952 | journal = Cross Cultural Diffusion of Science: Latin America | volume = | issue = 2 | pages = pp. 77-106 | publisher = Sociedad Latino Americana de Historia de las Ciencias y la Tecnologia | location = Mexico | date = 1988 | url = | doi = | id = | accessdate = }}</ref>
Perón believed that any project undertaken by a German scientist was bound to be successful. Due to his political disagreements with true Argentinean scientists of the stature of, for example, [[Ricardo Gaviola]], Perón was reluctant to seek their advice on Richter's proposal and he gave Richter an effective blank check and appointed him as his personal representative in the [[Bariloche]] area.<ref name=mayo>{{cite web | last = Mayo | first = Santos | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = More on the Value of Ronald Richter's Work | work = | publisher = [[Physics Today]] | date = March 2004 | url = http://scitation.aip.org/journals/doc/PHTOAD-ft/vol_57/iss_3/14_1.shtml | format = | doi = | accessdate = 2008-05-11}}</ref>
Late in 1949 construction of the laboratories in [[Huemul Island]] (''Isla Huemul'' in the [[Nahuel Huapi Lake]]), was begun. In March 1951 Richter informed Perón that the experiments had been successful and the government announced on [[March 24]] [[1951]]:
<blockquote>
"On February 16, 1951, in the... Isla Huemul... thermonuclear reactions under controlled conditions were performed on a technical scale."
</blockquote>
Richter's claim to have achieved fusion was wrong. It is hard at present to analyze his ideas because he never published them in the peer reviewed literature. In other failed attempts, such as the [[United Kingdom|British]] claim that fusion had been achieved with the [[Z-pinch|Zeta device]], the published results could be used for further progress. The subsequent [[Timeline of nuclear fusion|worldwide race]] over controlled fusion research was in part triggered by these press announcements.
The generation of excess energy by controlled fusion is still an [[Unsolved problems in physics|open problem]].
After the announcement, and because of delays in Richter's work to pass from the 'technical scale' to the 'industrial scale', Perón appointed a technical committee which included [[physics|physicist]] [[José Antonio Balseiro]] and engineer Mario Bancora, which was to report directly to him whether Richter's project should be discontinued. The committee analyzed Richter's work and concluded that the actual temperature reached in his experiments was far too low to produce a true thermonuclear reaction. They reported their findings to Perón in September 1952.<ref name=mayo/>
The government appointed [[physics|physicists]] [[Richard Gans]] and Antonio Rodríguez to review the response by Richter to the report of the first commission. This second group of experts endorsed the findings of the first review panel and found Richter's response inadequate. In view of these findings, the Huemul Project was closed in 1952. Richter had grossly underestimated the technical difficulties of achieving controlled fusion and had erroneously interpreted the results of his experiments.
The Richter affair caused substantial damage to the science and engineering sectors of Argentina's higher education system. Not only was the financial cost enormous, but Richter had never contacted any Argentinan university or admitted a single student into his facilities, making his contribution to physics in Argentina a somewhat negative one.<ref name=mayo/>
==Project cost==
In 1948 Argentina was in a good economic position, following a large trade surplus after World War II, so economic resources were available for the Huemul Project. The amount spent is precisely known thanks to a report written by Dr. Teófilo Isnardi et al., published in 1958. After [[Revolución Libertadora|the fall of Perón's government]] in September 1955, opponents to Perón painted a value for the budget of the project in a wall of Richter's Laboratory No. 4 (a photograph can be seen in Mariscotti's book, see references) claiming that the total expenses were 62 million pesos (the amount stated in Isnardi's report), which at that time represented approximately [[United States dollar|$]]7 million, or about 140 times the amount allocated by the U.S. government soon after the Argentine announcement (Project [[Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory|Matterhorn]], under [[Lyman Spitzer]]). A recent estimate has been published by M. Cardona et al., in their biography of Falicov (see references). They state that the total cost of the project was equivalent to [[United States dollar|$]]300 million in 2003 dollars.
This amount is small compared to the expenditures made by other nations in later efforts, but it is significant because it credits Argentina as the first country to give official support to a nuclear fusion program for peaceful purposes.
Today, the Huemul island with the ruins of the historic facilities (at {{coor dms|41|06|23|S|71|23|42|W|}}), can be visited by tourists. It is reached by boat from the port of [[San Carlos de Bariloche|Bariloche]].
== Footnotes ==
{{reflist}}
==References==
*Guderley, G., 1942, Luftfahrforschung 19, 302.
*Mariscotti, Mario, 1985, ''El Secreto Atómico de Huemul: Crónica del Origen de la Energía Atómica en la Argentina,'' Sudamericana/Planeta, Buenos Aires, Argentina ISBN 950-37-0109-0
*Mariscotti, Mario. ''El secreto atómico de Huemul'', 3. ed. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Estudio Sigma, c1996. 286 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. ISBN 950-9446-24-6
*Mariscotti, M., 2004, ''El secreto Atómico de Huemul,'' Ed. Estudio Sigma, Buenos Aires.
*[http://stills.nap.edu/html/biomems/lfalicov.html Falicov's biography] National Academy of Sciences: Biographical Memoirs, VOL 83, 2003, THE NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS, WASHINGTON, D.C.
*López Dávalos A. , Badino N., 2000 ''J. A. Balseiro: Crónica de una ilusión'', Fondo de Cultura Económica de Argentina, ISBN 950-557-357-X.
==External links==
*[http://www.ib.edu.ar/informes-huemul/reports-huemul-principal.html Reports of Balseiro and Bancora (1952)] in English.
*[http://cabbat1.cnea.gov.ar/forense/publicaciones/semin_2001/balseiro.pdf Balseiro's Report (1952)] PDF - Spanish
*[http://www.ib.edu.ar/informes-huemul/informes-huemul-principal.html#InformeBancora Bancora's Report(1952)]- Spanish]
*[http://www.ib.edu.ar/historia/historia-antecedentes.html López Dávalos, Arturo y Badino, Norma (1988)]. Antecedentes Históricos del Instituto Balseiro - Spanish
*[http://www.varelaenred.com.ar/litio.htm Horacio Luis Varela: Litio: Materia Prima para la Tecnología de la Fusión Termonuclear (1997)] Spanish
*[http://www.cdeea.com/huemul.htm Mic. Ramón Regés: Proyecto Huemul (1999)] Spanish
*[http://www.craam.mackenzie.br/~guigue/papers/Richter/richter.html Guillermo Giménez de Castro: La quimera atómica de Richter (2004)] Spanish
===From ''Physics Today''===
*[http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-56/iss-1/p32.html Juan G. Roederer. Article (2003)]
*[http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-57/iss-3/p14.html More on the Value of Ronald Richter's Work]
*[http://www.aip.org/pt/vol-57/iss-3/p14.html Santos Mayo, Friedwardt Winterberg. Letters (2004)]
*[http://www.physicstoday.org/pt/vol-58/iss-1/p14.html#ref Javier Luzuriaga. Letter (2005)]
[[Category:Science and technology in Argentina]]
[[Category:Fusion power]]
[[es:Proyecto Huemul]]
[[lt:Huemulo projektas]]