  The existing experimental data for the deuteron charge radius are discussed.
The data of elastic electron scattering are inconsistent with the value
obtained in a recent atomic physics experiment. Theoretical predictions based
on a nonrelativistic description of the deuteron with realistic nucleon-nucleon
potentials and with a rather complete set of meson-exchange contributions to
the charge operator are presented. Corrections arising from the quark-gluon
substructure of the nucleon are explored in a nonrelativistic quark model; the
quark-gluon corrections, not accounted for by meson exchange, are small. Our
prediction for the deuteron charge radius favors the value of a recent atomic
physics experiment.
