Science: Atomic Age: New Phase

The original Atomic Energy Act of 1946 provided that, besides being used for weapons, “the development and utilization of atomic energy shall, so far as practicable, be directed toward improving the public welfare, increasing the standard of living, strengthening free competition in private enterprise, and promoting world peace.” This dream has not come true. Since the high hopes of 1946 the chief product of atomic development, both in the U.S. and abroad, has been an increasing stockpile of increasingly destructive bombs.

Last week, in a momentous Chicago speech, AEC Commissioner Thomas E. Murray declared that the iron age of atomic energy may soon end. “The commission,” said Murray, “has embarked on a program to construct a full-scale power reactor . . . We hope to have it in operation in three to four years.”

Private Fall-Down. AEC’s reasons for delay in taking this obvious step were more political than technical. Since the start of the cold war, atomic bombs of all types have been in brisk demand, but there was little public or congressional demand for atomic power. Said Commissioner Murray sadly: “When attention is called to the danger of falling behind in the nuclear power race, too many are apt to reply, ‘So what?’ ”

Another obstacle was the notion that private enterprise is eager to develop nuclear power plants. AEC spent precious years exploring this possibility. Said Murray, an ardent free-enterprise man: “The answer that we derived after several years of probing this problem, with the help of competent, interested industrialists, was negative.” Many companies wanted to get into the game, but they all demanded in one way or another that the Government pay the bill.

Recently the situation took a new and ominous turn. Said Murray: “It is no secret that our atomic weapons program depends upon the receipt of substantial quantities of uranium from foreign nations. These friendly nations .. . are banking on the United States … to help them build their nuclear power plants of the future. I believe that unless we embark on an all-out attack on our nuclear power program immediately, we may be deprived of foreign uranium ores …”

What Murray did not say at Chicago was that Belgium and South Africa, both large producers of uranium and both deficient in other forms of potential energy, had put strong pressure on the U.S. They demanded, in return for their uranium, that the U.S. tell them how to build nuclear power plants.

Behind these demands was a really shocking possibility. Eventually, Soviet Russia may solve the problem of atomic power. Said Murray: “[We must] become fully conscious of the possibility that power-hungry countries will gravitate toward the U.S.S.R. if it wins the nuclear power race . . .”

Extraordinary Officer. Having come to this disquieting conclusion, AEC took stock of its reactor assets. It was not destitute. One of the atomic weapons that it had been developing was the nuclear-powered submarine, and at the head of this program was an extraordinary Navy officer, Rear Admiral Hyman George Rickover, 53, who had pushed it ahead with defiant tenacity and almost at the cost of his Navy career.

The purpose of the submarine is to wage war, but the problems of its power plant were like those of landbound plants. Materials had to be found that would not go to pieces in a reactor’s heart. New instruments were needed, and new kinds of pumps, controls, heat-exchangers and safety devices. Rickover, then a captain, worked in a swarm of difficulties, opposed by many in the Navy. But he won his battle. On May 31, Commissioner Murray, with Rickover standing beside him, opened a valve at Arco, Idaho. A shaft began turning over, and the world’s first practical nuclear power plant was in successful operation.

Pentagon Washout. Another of Rickover’s projects, a 60,000-kilowatt reactor for an airplane carrier, had a less happy outcome. Last spring, after two years of work had gone into it, Secretary of Defense Wilson canceled its “military requirement,” and work on it slowed to a crawl.

It has now been revived by AEC, Pentagon or no Pentagon. The atomic power plant announced last week will be Rickover’s half-finished carrier reactor. It will be built by Westinghouse Electric Corp., and Admiral Rickover will boss the job. Only by success in atomic power, Commissioner Murray made clear, can the U.S. continue its leadership in atomic peace as well as in atomic war.