Star Chambers: The Race for Fusion Power

by Melanie Windridge

2020 Edition with a 10-years-on update on fusion progress. Fusion is the energy solution for the future, imperative in a world drastically running out of fossil fuels and with an energy demand too great for renewables. It is clean, green, safe and abundant. But it is also still experimental. This fully-illustrated book gives a basic introduction to fusion energy - what it is, how we do it and the machines we use for fusion, called tokamaks. It was inspired by the author's lectures to school children, but it's not just for students. It is for the general, interested reader and it aims to give a good overview of the subject. Further reading material is suggested for those who want to delve deeper. The book began when Melanie was touring the country as the Institute of Physics Schools Lecturer in 2010. It formed a collection of blogs written for the IOP, which after the tour were collected together and expanded. For that reason we have kept the journal-like nature that includes snippets about the places visited. Chapters were added on the challenges to overcome on the way to fusion power, and the new, complementary machines we hope to see in the future. The book also discusses the rival to tokamaks - lasers - and presents the author's Tokamak Top 10 of the best fusion machines in the world, with pictures contributed from all the major labs. Born through the communication of fusion to GCSE and A-level students, this book complements the National Curriculum by providing further, accessible information on fusion as well as touching on some other areas of the syllabus.

Kindle Edition

Published June 13, 2020

About the author

Dr Melanie Windridge is a plasma physicist, speaker, writer… with a taste for adventure. She has a PhD in fusion energy from Imperial College London and is Communications Consultant for fusion start-up Tokamak Energy. She also works in education with the Ogden Trust, Anturus and Your Life. Melanie loves the mountains and believes science and exploration go hand in hand.

Reviews

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

Star Chambers : The Race for Fusion Power (2012 – updated edition 2020) by Melanie Windridge is an introduction to nuclear fusion that’s aimed at at 14-18 year olds. Dr Windridge is a fusion researcher and science communicator who consults with the fusion startup Tokomak Energy.

The book started as a series of blog posts about Windridge’s speaking engagements for the Institute of Physics. Each chapter has a description of travelling to somewhere in the UK for a presentation. It adds a chatty, light touch to the book. Each chapter then explains in a basic way some aspect of fusion.

The book also has extensive illustrations. It also can’t be read on a Kindle and requires a Kindle app running on a device.

It seems like it would be a good introduction to fusion for a teenager or younger child who has become interested in the field. Fusion is a hard subject to write in a popular physics way. The basics are fairly straightforward but then it becomes apparent that the reasons why tokomaks work and how they work requires deep knowledge, mathematical and physics skill and considerable study.

Star Chambers isn’t bad. It does what it sets out to do. For adults, The Future of Fusion Energy or A Piece of the Sun are better books, but Star Chambers is well worth a look for anyone interested in fusion who wants to get a quick overview.