Deserts are havens for visionaries and prophets. As physicist Robert Golka explained in the 1981 short film "Energy and How to Get It", his goal was to produce a reliable system for endlessly renewable energy, while avoiding nuclear power’s radioactive waste. With his unsuccessful experiments, Golka tried to create a fusion reactor to obtain an optical fireball that could reach temperatures for thermonuclear reaction. Nothing related to power, except a few rusting coils baking in the merciless heat, remains today. But there’s money. Part of the Air Force base has become an airport that swarms with retirees from the Midwest spending a few days in the Wendover West Casinos across the border in Nevada. Deserts are havens for risk-takers, both visionary scientists and gamblers.
