THE WONDERFUL ISOTOPE–: A New Tool for the Atomic Age

THE WONDERFUL ISOTOPE

WHEN U.S. businessmen contemplate the peacetime uses of atomic energy, the talk revolves around huge nuclear-power plants to generate electricity. But while the nation’s first large-scale nuclear-power plant has yet to be built, another form of atomic energy—the radioactive isotope—is already quietly at work in 250 of the biggest U.S. companies and 1,400 smaller firms, helping businessmen search out raw materials, create new products and make old ones faster, better and cheaper than ever before. Although isotopes are still in their commercial infancy, the Atomic Energy Commission estimates that industry’s wonderful new servant will suve U.S. companies almost $500 million this year alone. By 1962 the savings will grow to $5 billion annually, or enough to repay the annual cost of the Government’s entire atomic-energy program.

The commonest kind of radioisotope is any element (gold, cobalt, strontium) that has been placed inside a reactor long enough to become radioactive, i.e., to shoot off alpha, beta or gamma rays. Then, when these rays hit another object, their speed or intensity changes; by using Geiger counters and other devices to detect the rays, technicians can learn many filings’ about the objects under bombardment. And when isotopes are added to liquids, their flow can easily be followed by Geiger counters.

The U.S. oil industry, which helped pioneer the new science of isotopes, will save about $225 million this year by using isotopes in a dozen ways. Refineries employ them to trace the flow of catalysts through craeking plants, Isotopes serve as tireless sentinels to warn of hidden leaks in pipes, as sensitive controls to separate oil from gasoline in pipelines. Oilmen merely insert a shot of an isotope after each batch is pumped in; when the radioactive cocktail reaches interchange points, the isotope automatically activates valves that shunt the crude and the gasoline in proper directions.

Now other industries are discovering even tougher tasks for the versatile isotopes to perform. Tiremakers long sought a way to control the amount of rubber that goes onto each strand of tire cord. Recently, Industrial Nucleonics Corp. of Columbus, Ohio, one of the top sellers of isotope measuring equipment (1956 sales: $5,000,000), developed a foolproof method. As the tire cord goes through the rubberizing machine, it passes between a capsule of strontium 90 and a radiation counter. If the thickness varies, the detector’s reading changes, automatically sets off machinery to adjust the rubber flow. Today all the major rubber companies use these “AccuRay” gauges at a saving of $20 million annually. With similar apparatus rolling mills can control the thickness of steel, and the manufacturers of aluminum, paper, plastics, glass, cigarettes use isotope gauges to police the quality, thickness and density of their products. –

Isotopes are so sensitive that a single drop of isotope-treated vermouth can be detected in a tank car of gin. The city of Los Angeles added isotopes to its sewage, followed the flow out to the Pacific Ocean to make sure that it did not wash back near bathing beaches. Canadian biologists recently tagged lumber-destroying pine weevils with isotopes, successfully trailed the radioactive insects through forests to learn their habits. And General Motors ran an isotope-treated piston ring in an engine for two hours, later probed the engine’s oil to see how much of the ring had worn off.

Farm researchers are also finding isotopes invaluable. They use them to discover how corn, wheat, cotton, peanuts and other crops draw nourishment from sun and soil, hope to create super crops through atomic research. Food packers believe that isotopes offer the best new principle of food preservation since commercial canning was invented in 1809. Working with 35 organizations, the Defense Department is shooting radioisotopes into meat, milk, fruit and vegetables to kill bacteria, preserve highly perishable foods for years without refrigeration.

Despite all the exciting new uses, U.S. industry has only begun to tap isotopes’ vast potential. Of the nation’s 288,000 manufacturers, only three-fifths of 1% now use radioisotopes. One major stumbling block is cost. A single steel-thickness gauge sells for about $30,000, and while the investment may save $100,000 a year, the initial outlay is too high for many a small company. Another problem is that only the AEC produces isotopes.

But these roadblocks will soon be swept away. Now General Dynamics Corp. is building the nation’s first reactor designed solely to turn out radioisotopes for industry on a commercial basis. Within a few years, says the AEC, some isotopes will be sold at 1% of their present price as the growing demand speeds production. Then the uses of the wonderful isotope will be limited only by the businessman’s imagination.