The building of the nation’s firstprivately owned atomic power plant was announced last week.Consolidated Edison Co. of New York will construct a 100,000 to200,000-kw. plant 30 miles from Manhattan on the Hudson River at IndianPoint (site of an amusement park), feed the power into New York andfast-growing Westchester County. The plant will produce about 4% of thecompany’s present total capacity, cost from $30 million to $40 million(v. about $20 million for a conventional steam power plant of the samegenerating power). Consolidated Edison believes the extra expense wellworth it. Says President Hudson R. Searing: “We think it represents areal contribution to the advancement of the art. We want to get on withthe job.”