Editing Fusion power (section)

=== Early experiments ===
[[File:Kink instability at Aldermaston.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.5|Early photo of plasma inside a pinch machine (Imperial College 1950–1951)]]
[[File:A sun of our own newspaper headline.jpg|thumb|alt=The UK claimed that it had gotten fusion first in 1957 on ZETA, but this claim had to later be withdrawn. |The UK claimed that it had gotten fusion first in 1957 on ZETA, but this claim had to later be withdrawn.]]

The first machine to achieve controlled [[thermonuclear fusion]] was a [[Pinch (plasma physics)|pinch machine]] at Los Alamos National Laboratory called Scylla I at the start of 1958. The team that achieved it was led by a British scientist named [[James L. Tuck|James Tuck]] and included a young [[Marshall Rosenbluth]]. Tuck had been involved in the Manhattan project, but had switched to working on fusion in the early 1950s. He applied for funding for the project as part of a White House sponsored contest to develop a fusion reactor along with [[Lyman Spitzer]]. The previous year, 1957, the British had claimed that they had achieved thermonuclear fusion reactions on the [[ZETA (fusion reactor)|Zeta pinch machine]]. However, it turned out that the neutrons they had detected were from beam-target interactions, not fusion, and they withdrew the claim. A [[CERN]]-sponsored study group on controlled thermonuclear fusion met from 1958 to 1964. This group ceased when it became clear that CERN discontinued its limited support for plasma physics.<ref>{{Citation |last=Hof |first=Barbara |title=Fusion divided: what prevented European collaboration on controlled thermonuclear fusion in 1958 |date=October 21, 2024 |arxiv=2410.15969 }}</ref>

Scylla I was a classified machine at the time, so the achievement was hidden from the public. A traditional [[Z-pinch]] passes a current down the center of a plasma, which makes a magnetic force around the outside which squeezes the plasma to fusion conditions. Scylla I was a [[Theta pinch|θ-pinch]], which used deuterium to pass a current around the outside of its cylinder to create a magnetic force in the center.<ref name="Seife, Charles 2008" /><ref name="Phillips, James 2013" /> After the success of Scylla I, Los Alamos went on to build multiple pinch machines over the next few years.

Spitzer continued his stellarator research at Princeton. While fusion did not immediately transpire, the effort led to the creation of the [[Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Stix|first=T. H.|date=1998|title=Highlights in early stellarator research at Princeton|url=http://inis.iaea.org/Search/search.aspx?orig_q=RN:30002355|journal=Helical System Research|pages=3–8 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite tech report|last=Johnson|first=John L.|date=November 16, 2001|title=The Evolution of Stellarator Theory at Princeton|url=https://www.osti.gov/biblio/792587-fxKdXU/native/|language=en|doi=10.2172/792587|osti=792587}}</ref>