General Atomics

A Vibrant Place

In 1956, some 60 of the world’s top nuclear scientists, among them famed physicist Marshall Rosenbluth, gathered at General Atomic (GA) to take up a challenge issued by President Dwight D. Eisenhower: “The pursuit of peaceful uses of atomic energy.”
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Search for the Holy Grail

Ohkawa took charge of rebuilding the GA fusion program. He sent a proposal for a scaled-up experiment to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), and after much debate, the AEC decided to support Ohkawa’s work.
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Doublet Revolutions

Ohkawa proposed a new idea, a plasma-current multipole, or “Doublet.” This innovation, an elongated, non-circular plasma cross section, resulted in a superior fit for a fusion reactor while using a plasma similar to a tokamak plasma.
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International Collaboration

Despite the successful construction and initial operations of Doublet III, more funds were needed. In particular, additional funding for the DIII plasma heating systems were necessary if the team was to demonstrate the advantage of a doublet over a standard circular tokamak.
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Seeding for the Future

Even when occupied with large projects such as DIII, Ohkawa never forgot to carefully plan for future initiatives. Mike Schaffer recalls that when he joined GA as a scientist in 1973, Ohkawa made him one of his first special projects colleagues.
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