著者

雨宮 高久

出版者

日本科学史学会

雑誌

科学史研究 (ISSN:21887535)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.61, no.302, pp.105-121, 2022 (Released:2023-11-17)

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Within the general history of fusion research in Japan regarding the decision for the A-B plans dispute during 1959, the B-plan (promptly building medium-sized devices that had obtained some success in foreign countries) was postponed. Furthermore, it was decided that the national policy for fusion research in Japan would start with basic research using the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (MoE) budget. Accordingly, it was decided that the Institute of Plasma Physics (IPP) at Nagoya University would bear the responsibilities and consequences of the A-plan (promoting the basic research to develop the original ideas). However, our research concludes that the IPP is related to not only the A-plan but also the B-plan. Kodi Husimi, the chairman of Kakuyugo Tokubetsu-Iinkai [Special Committee for Nuclear Fusion (SCNF)], and Eiichi Kawasaki, the secretary of SCNF, were planning to reconcile the opposing opinions regarding the B-plan. To find a solution, they planned an informal gathering of researchers which was held on June 21, 1959. After an informal gathering, the opposing plan of B-plan was to establish the institute under the jurisdiction of the MoE proposed by Kawasaki. Kawasakiʼs plan was a reasonable compromise, because the institute included assumptions about the construction of the medium-sized devices under the MoE budget. Many researchers agreed to this plan; however, some supporters on the B-plan did not agree inwardly and distanced themselves from the IPP.

著者

雨宮 高久

出版者

日本科学史学会

雑誌

科学史研究 (ISSN:21887535)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.58, no.290, pp.126-143, 2019 (Released:2021-01-24)

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Japanese researchers who initiated fusion research were of the common view that “fusion research should start from basic research.” However, the A-plan (“developing and realizing new ideas”) and the B-plan (“building medium-sized devices”) proposed in March 1959 by Kakuyugo Senmonbukai (the Special Panel on Nuclear Fusion Research, established in 1958) of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission under the auspices of the Prime Ministerʼs Office took a different view from the above-mentioned common view. These future plans led to an intense dispute that in later years was referred to as the A-B plans dispute. A particular focus of the A-B plans dispute was the B-planʼs aim of building in Japan the type of medium-sized devices that had obtained some success in foreign countries. Many previous studies have emphasized the influence of the second United Nations International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy (September, 1958) on Senmonbukaiʼs drafting of the B-plan; but in addition to this, domestic arguments also had a strong influence, such arguments arising from the results of questionnaires that Kakuyugo Kondankai (Nuclear Fusion Research Group) had carried out about how to proceed with nuclear fusion research, and the insistence of some researchers, especially experimentalists, that the B-plan should be carried out as “basic research of engineering.” At first, many Senmonbukai members approved the implementation of the B-plan. However, Kakuyugo Kenkyu-iinkai (the B-plan committee) did not resolve a type of the B-plan device. Therefore, some Senmonbukai members changed an opinion and didnʼt agree with the B-plan. Subsequently, the B-plan was postponed.