The New Yorker, December 17, 1973 P. 60
PROFILE of nuclear physicist Theodore B. Taylor. In 1956 he went to work in San Diego for General Atomic, a subsidiary of Gen. Dynamics, a civilian laboratory set up to make creative use of nuclear energy. In 1958 he & others began to work on a design for a nuclear spaceship that would be cheaper & enormously more capable than the best chemical rocket. The project was called Orion; tells about their work. The limited test-ban treaty of 1968, which forbade nuclear explosions in space & in the atmosphere led to a suspension of Orion. Taylor is concerned about nuclear safeguards, which could be adequate but are not, he feels. With the increase in use of nuclear energy this has become important. Aspects of it are discussed. It is up to the AEC & industry to tighten safeguards. In 1967 Taylor founded a firm called International Research & Technology, now a subsidiary of General Research Corp. Tells about their work. Taylor spoke about possible use of plant fuel to replace nuclear energy. His book, written with Charles C. Humpstone, "The Restoration of the Earth" tells about it. He imagines how a bomb might be made & used by an amateur. There is irony in the nuclear safeguards problem. It's possible that by the end of the 20th cen. thermonuclear-fusion reactors will start producing electricity. Their fuel will be the heavy isotopes of hydrogen, the most abundant energy resource on earth & the energy crisis will be over for many millions of years. The fusion reactor, still on paper, is safer than the fission one for there is no danger of a runaway accident.
