STOCKHOLM—The return of 65-year-old academician Andrei Sakharov has given rise to many questions. One important question for scientists is: To what extent will the former prodigy and the youngest person to be elected a full member of the prestigious Soviet' Academy of Sciences resume his scientific activities, after seven years of isolation in Gorky?
Speculation about how he might apply his scientific energies ranges over a large area. His insights might be very useful to those who have struggled with limited success in the past three decades toward bringing the power of nuclear fusion from the laboratory to the industrial world. His knowledge, combined with his moral authority and sense of responsibility, might be a decisive factor in charting the future of nuclear energy in the West and around the world.
The diversity of his scientific interests has been astonishing. He' has made contributions in different and remote fields of...
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