Editing Tokamak (section)

=== Lavrentiev's letter ===
In 1950, [[Oleg Lavrentiev]], then a [[Red Army]] sergeant stationed on [[Sakhalin]], wrote a letter to the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]. The letter outlined the idea of using an [[atomic bomb]] to ignite a fusion fuel, and then went on to describe a system that used [[electrostatic]] fields to contain a hot plasma in a steady state for energy production.{{sfn|Shafranov|2001|p=873}}<ref>{{cite journal |last= Bondarenko |first=B.D. |title= Role played by O. A. Lavrent'ev in the formulation of the problem and the initiation of research into controlled nuclear fusion in the USSR |journal= Phys. Usp. |volume=44 |issue=8 |page= 844 |date=2001 |url= http://ufn.ru/ufn01/ufn01_8/Russian/r018m.pdf|doi=10.1070/PU2001v044n08ABEH000910 |s2cid=250885028 }}</ref>{{efn|The system Lavrentiev described is very similar to the concept now known as the [[fusor]].}}

The letter was sent to [[Andrei Sakharov]] for comment. Sakharov noted that "the author formulates a very important and not necessarily hopeless problem", and found his main concern in the arrangement was that the plasma would hit the electrode wires, and that "wide meshes and a thin current-carrying part which will have to reflect almost all incident nuclei back into the reactor. In all likelihood, this requirement is incompatible with the mechanical strength of the device."{{sfn|Shafranov|2001|p=873}}

Some indication of the importance given to Lavrentiev's letter can be seen in the speed with which it was processed; the letter was received by the Central Committee on 29 July, Sakharov sent his review in on 18 August, by October, Sakharov and [[Igor Tamm]] had completed the first detailed study of a fusion reactor, and they had asked for funding to build it in January 1951.{{sfn|Shafranov|2001|p=837}}