There has been great hope that peaceful uses of atomic energy would far out-balance the destructive uses.

17. PEACEFUL USES OF ATOMIC ENERGY

There has been great hope in the world that the peaceful uses of atomic energy would far outbalance the destructive uses for war purposes. When it first became apparent that the energy of the atomic nucleus could be made available practically, there were many predictions that atomic energy plants could revolutionize our sources of power. Plentiful energy was visualized for deserts that would make them fruitful and capable of supporting large populations. Areas of the globe that do not have supplies of oil and coal would be able to obtain uranium power to supply their energy needs.

The world's preoccupation with developing atomic energy for war has delayed the realization of these dreams of plentiful atomic power. A stumbling block in the application of atomic energy for peaceful power purposes has been the difficulty of control of atomic energy internationally. Atomic reactors in which uranium is fissioned with great release of energy could be converted very speedily into atomic bombs by any nation that would wish to divert the uranium and the plutonium in the great atomic "furnaces" to weapon purposes.

There should be atomic power plants running now, to fulfill the hopeful predictions of five years ago made just after the world knew that atomic bombs had been exploded.

As it is, after several seeming false starts, we are probably two to three years away from the successful operation of the kind of atomic power plant that might run submarines several times around the world without refueling.

Our atomic power bets are laid almost exclusively upon two ship propulsion reactors, one reported to be in the advanced stages of engineering design and the other just begun. As an auxiliary to weapons development, there are other projects of the Atomic Energy Commission which will aid the eventual power use of uranium at the same time that they help build more and better bombs.

The military situation has dictated that virtually nothing be done in power development that does not contribute to our armed strength.

In the long run successful application of atomic power may not come any later due to this emphasis on fighting power. The problems in making a ship power plant are those of a stationary installation, with many conditions much more difficult. For one thing, the cost factor is thrown overboard, for a ship that does not have to refuel is priceless.

The cost of building an atomic ship reactor for the Navy is estimated as about $1,400 per kilowatt, which is about ten times as much as a conventional coal-burning power plant.

DIFFICULTIES OF USE

Intense radiation bombardment from the fissioning uranium or plutonium is the greatest difficulty in an atomic power plant. At least six feet of concrete is needed to shield the heat-producing reactor and make it safe for men and materials nearby.

Ordinary materials, such as steel and other common metals used in power plants, do not stand up under the battering of neutrons, intense gamma rays (X-rays) and electrons (beta rays). Heat in an atomic pile or reactor, where the fissioning is going on, reaches at least a million degrees. No ordinary structural materials can withstand such temperatures.

Almost everything battered by the radiations is made so radioactive itself that it becomes a source of dangerous radiations. Transfer of heat from the reactor to the engines involves handling so much liquid or gaseous "radium."

So far as known, there must be used relatively conventional methods of applying the heat of atomic energy to practical engines. Somehow the heat must be brought to the state of the few hundreds of degrees of temperature range that steam or turbo-jet engines can use.

Production of electricity directly from the neutron impact or the fission reaction itself is not unthinkable, but there has been no hint of any progress. Years ago there were attempts at direct electrical production from the flame of ordinary combustion, but without any marked degree of success.

The experience in atomic reactors or piles has been with slow neutrons, the energy range that seems easiest to use. Faster moving neutrons can be used and two of the AEC reactors are pioneering in this unknown field. A materials testing reactor is designed for the highest neutron flux yet attempted but it is merely a step toward other reactors. The second ship propulsion reactor will operate in the unexplored intermediate neutron range. This is important because this intermediate range will also allow the production of more fissionable material, breeding as it is called, than is fed into it.

An atomic energy plant or reactor is an atomic bomb kept under control. There is always the hazard of a run-away reactor that would explode as a bomb or otherwise, although the safeguards are many.

Any sale of power stocks or postponement of power development plans anywhere in the world, in anticipation of practical atomic power, is no more justified now than it was at the end of the war.

Using the world's precious fissionable material to boil water or the equivalent for gross power production may be a very wasteful use of our natural resources of uranium (and thorium from which fissionable uranium 233 can be made).