Science: Bargain Radiation

Buried deep in the desert near the plutonium plant at Hanford, Wash. are thick-walled concrete treasure chests, guarded by a stronger curse than watches over any Egyptian tomb. If a thief were to try to loot them, a blast of radioactivity would strike bim dead. But the dangerous treasure—”fission products” from plutonium manufacture—may some day revolutionize many branches of industry. Last week Stanford Research Institute issued a weighty report on the fission products and how they may be used.

For Cheese & Fruit. When plutonium is made from uranium in a nuclear reactor, the U-235 that is sacrificed splits into other elements of lesser atomic weight. Most of these are fiercely radioactive, and they must be disposed of before the plutonium can be used for atomic bombs. The chemical separation process, accomplished by remote control from behind thick shields, results in a crude mixture of fission products and nonradioactive chemicals. Radioactivity of the mixture varies, but may be as high as 1,000 curies* per lb.—about twice as active as radium, the smallest visible speck of which is dangerous. Further refining raises the activity to 5,000 or 10,000 curies per lb. Stanford Institute believes that the crude stuff can be marketed for 10¢ to $1.00 per curie. (The present price of radium: $16,000 per curie.)

What good are these cheap and perilous fission products? The institute gives a long list of promising industrial uses: to sterilize food products and surgical dressings without heat, by passing them through intense radiation; to kill mold on the outside of cheese or fruit; to destroy weevils and other pests in grain elevators. Probably even more important are the chemical uses. Radiation breaks up many chemical molecules, encouraging them to recombine into new compounds. Chemical plants of the future, says the institute, may use fission products to turn out valuable substances that cannot be made in any other practical way.

For Fire & Light. Another characteristic of radiation is its ability to ionize the air, allowing the escape of static electricity. This is important in many industries where static charges are troublesome or create a fire hazard. And in electronics it is often desirable to ionize the interior of a tube. Fluorescent lamps, for instance, light up more quickly if radioactivity has prepared a path for the current.

The Atomic Energy Commission, says Stanford Institute, has enormous quantities of fission products in the underground storage at Hanford. Before they are put freely on the market, however, industry must learn gradually how to make use of them. It must also learn how to control its new and dangerous tools.

*The standard unit of radioactivity, a curie (for Marie and Pierre Curie, discoverers of radium), originally was used to describe the activity of one gram of radium, is now defined as 37 billion atomic disintegrations per second.