§ 53. Mr. Masonasked the Prime Minister, in view of the fact that no information is available to the public concerning any apparatus, other than the Zero Energy Thermo-nuclear Assembly at Harwell, which has successfully built up a temperature of 5,000,000 degrees Centigrade by electrically heating deuterium gas, if he will make public any information of similar developments which he has received from those countries with which the United Kingdom has an agreement to exchange information for the peaceful development of atomic energy; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. R. A. ButlerI have been asked to reply.
Temperatures of the order mentioned have not been reported by any country with which the United Kingdom has an agreement except the United States. Details of United States work on controlled thermo-nuclear reactions were given in an announcement by the United States Atomic Energy Commission on 24th January, 1958, and also in the British periodical "Nature".