BLOWING UP THE FUTURE

Destruction or construction? —
that's Britain's atomic problem

HE Japanese government’s

well-argued note requesting
the British government to sus-
pend—and, presumably, fin-
ally to abandon—the H-bomb
tests due to start next month
at Christmas Island, in the
Pacific, has raised once more
the advisability of persisting
with this project.

It is made more urgent by
the fuel shortage in Britain
and Western Europe which has
resulted from the British-
French-Israel attack on Egypt.

For, other important consid-
erations apart, each one of
the “at least two, and perhaps
up to four” proposed tests, will
consume the energy-equival-
ent_of no fewer than ten mil-
lion tons of coal, as represent-
ed by the fissile material con-
tained in the bombs.

When it is argued that Brit-
ain has already sunk close to
$300 million in this venture,
and that therefore it would
be foolish to abandon it now,
it must be remembered ¢hat
the major part of that expen-
diture is represented by the
fissile material contained in
the bombs and is, therefore,
recoverable — if the bombs
are not exploded.

It has taken Britain a long
time, and has cost a great deal
of money to produce this fis-
Sile material. It will take
Britain a long time and will
cost a great deal of money to
replace it, once it is expended.

In order to produce it, Brit-
ain’s first “commercial” -nu-
clear power station (the first
in the world) at Calder Hall
has been deliberately design-
ed to run at less than maxi-
mum efficiency as a producer
of power, in order to produce
more plutonium.

The British Atomic Energy
Authority has been obliged to
amend — and set back — its
power-production program, in
order to build two more sta-
tions of the same type to meet
increased military demands for
plutonium.

Calder. Hall and its twin
sisters are further handicap-
ped in a way which reduces
their power-productive capac-
ity to one-third of what it
might be.

Figures published by the
Atomic Energy Authority show
that, whereas these stations
produce the power equivalent
of about 10,000 tons of coal
from each ton of natural uran-
ium used in them as fuel, that
figure could be trebled to 30,-
000 “if the spent fuel rods are
processed and the fission pro-

‘

ducts and plutonium formed in
them separated, the plutonium
being again used in the same

reactor” -- instead of being
taken away for useless expen-
diture in bombs. F

The new nuclear power

stations now under construc-
tion for the Central Electricity
Authority and the South of

Scotland Electricity Board are
an improvement on their Cal-
der Hall prototypes, in that
they are set for the maximum
production of power — urani-
um being the byproduct.

This has its disadvantages,
however — that it will be a
very long time before they
wi.l have produced enough
plutonium to make it possible
for their successors to operate
on enriched fuel.

In other words, these sta-
tions, on which so much de-
pends, must operate at one-
third efficiency “until the late
1960’s”’ unless .

Unless what?

Unless the stockpile of plu-
tonium now accumylated is
used for the production of
power.

This must be done immedi-
ately, moreover, before Sir
William Penney, head of the
Weapons Research and De-
velopment. section of the
Atomic Energy Authority, is
allowed to thwart the construc-
tive aims and efforts of Sir
John Cockcroft and Sir Chris-
topher Hinton, by blowing
away at Christmas Island the
equivalent of “at least 20, and
perhaps up to 40 million tons
of coal.”

If the ‘decision to do this
were taken it would still not
be too late for the plans of
the first nuclear power. sta-
tions to be modified in a way
which would increase their ef-
ficiency, as just indicated, and
at the same time reduce sub-
stantially their capital cost.

This is not the complete
story however. The fissile
material in the H-bombs which
are to be exploded shortly at
Christmas Island, represents
but a part of Britain’s stock-
pite of this potential fuel.

Some other countries have
certainly got far bigger stock-
piles of this than Britain has,
but the point is that they have
not as yet shown that they

know how to turn this into
power commercially.

From various parts of the
world, and notably from Jap-
an, interested parties have been
considering and discussing the
purchase of Britain’s proved
nuclear power stations of Cal-
der Hall type, and of improved
modifications thereof.

For technical reasons, how-
ever, the demand is, and is
likely for some time to re-
main, less for the type now be-
ing built for the Central Elec-
tricity Authority—using nat-
ural uranium fuel—than for
a less cumbersome and more
efficient development of that
type which requires “enriched
fuel,” natural uranium en-
riched with plutonium.

British industry is ready to
produce power stations of
either of the types on what is
known as the “turn-key prin-
ciple,” and if switched over to
the production of these as a
first priority could probably
do so on a scale which would
meet both its home and its
export requirements.

The profit to be made from
this should make it possible
before long, moreover, for con-
siderable alleviation. of the
British taxpayers, which would
be only feasonable because,
as taxpayers, they have paid
for the production of this plu-
tonium, and it is theirs.

Never in history has it been
so literally possible to “beat
swords into ploughshares.”!

PRU THIS

Se cceee OIET

Britain’s Calder Hall atomic power plant ¢

ee

The new vessel will be
Soviet Union’s first

ers of the Leningrad ship-
yards, who may have built
a good half of the Soviet
fleet, feel a thrill of satis-
faction when they look at
the new vessel now taking
shape on the stocks:

And they have very good
reason to do so, fo revery-
thing about it is unusual—
the ship itself and the way
it is being built,

atomic icebreaker, the first
unit of its future atomic
fleet.

The icebreaker will have
a displacement of 16,000
tons and its engines of 44,-
000 h.p. will enable the 440-
feet-long vessel to travel at
a speed of up to 18 knots.

Its most important feat-
ure, however, is the amaz-
ingly small amount of fuel
it will need,

Icebreaker first of Soviet fleet

VEN such old hands at
shipbuilding as the work- the

Where an ordinary ice-
breaker consumers more
than 100 tons of fuel a day
the new ship will need only
a few ounces of atomic fuel

a week.
This will allow it an un-

precedented cruising radius.

It will be able to touch at
both Poles in a single cruise
and travel for a whole year
without calling at its base.

The new icebreaker will
be the most powerful ves-

sel operating in Arctic ~
waters, able to cut its way
through an ice sheet of 6%
feet thick.

This will make it pos-
sible to convoy ships even
in the highest northern lati-
tudes.

What’s more, the exist-
ence of the atomic icebreak-
er will greatly increase the
possibilities for further ex-
ploration of the regions of
eternal frost.

FEBRUARY 15, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE-—PAG

O oie pei iaans