ATOMIC ENERGY IN INDUSTRY

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27309, 27 March 1954, Page 2

ATOMIC ENERGY IN INDUSTRY

COMPETITION WITH OIL FUEL PREDICTED

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, March 26.

Atomic energy would be in active competition with oil as a source of power, possible about the middle of next century, Mr J. W. Platt, one of the managing directors of the Shell group of oil companies, said in Wellington today. Mr Platt said there would be several stages of development before nuclear power would be used widely and in civilian life. Although atomic energy had added several hundred years to the world’s fuel supply, it was not expected that development would be fast. In the first stages, the power was needed for armed services and defence, Mr Platt said. Atomic power plants had been built, but "I don’t quite see why people should put money into them.”

He added: “There is no attraction for investment in atomic power, not, perhaps, for another 20 or 30 years. That’s a short time, but even so I don’t think that by the end of the century nuclear power will be ahead of oil and coal.’’ Mr Platt, in reply to a question, said the oil industry was a stabilising rather than a disrupting influence in world peace.

The strategic value of oil deposits in Allied countries and Russia could not be compared. The West produced about 10 times as much oil as the Soviet States.