ATOMIC ELECTRIC POWER BY 1957?

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27426, 12 August 1954, Page 10

ATOMIC ELECTRIC POWER BY 1957?

HARNESSING THE ATOM

(By

J. STUBBS WALKER]

(From the United Kingdom Information Service)

The claims made by the Russians recently that they are building a first atomic power station, “capable of supplying the needs of industry and agriculture,” indicated that the Soviet Union must be some years behind Britain in the development of peaceful uses of the atom. The Moscow statement showed that the power station now being developed is little more than a large-scale laboratory experiment, capable of producing only sufficient energy—seme 5000 kilowatts —to power . a single medium-sized factory. Few details have been made known of the new station, but British experts are of the opinion that the Russian nuclear power venture is in the nature of a “technical feeler” to give their engineers experience of the tactical and engineering problems involved in making the atom do useful work. That is a much more complex problem than harnessing atomic energy for destruction. There is certainly no real comparison between the 5000-kilowatt experiment in Russia and the full-scale power station now being built by the British Department of Atomic Energy at Calderhall, Cumberland. No official statement has been made on the power capabilities of CalderhaH; but it is expected that it will be capable of delivering at least 40,000 kilowatts, or sufficient energy to provide power and light for a medium-sized country town. Advances in Britain That this station will be in operation, supplying energy to the British electricity grid early in 1957, is due to the' remarkable technical advances made by scientists at the atomic research establishment at Harwell and at Atomic Production Headquarters at Risley, where all the available “know how” of atomic design is coordinated by engineers into practical plans for building nuclear generating stations. During the last 18 months tremendous progress has been made in the engineering aspects of atomic energy. The huge atomic piles at the Windscale plutonium factory, for instance, have provided engineers with information that has enabled them to reduce by years the original estimate of time needed to harness the atom for industrial energy. So rapid have been some of the advances that they have embarrassed the experts. Changes in techniques have followed so rapidly that the purely engineering aspects of atomic energy have had difficulty in keeping abreast of developments. This vast amount of work already carried out in the north’ of England atomic factories has allowed engineers to go ahead immediately with full-scale power-producing plants instead of having to waste possibly three years or more in operating small

experimental stations such as th Russian scientists now propose, perience of such factories as Wind scale has made engineers feel c 0B * fident that they have already got th “bugs” out of the atomic generatS plant even before stations have built. A Breeder-Reactor Station Apart from the CalderhaH power station, which will almost be the first full-scale atomic gene ating plant in the world, a second and even larger plant is being built in the far north of Scotland, near Thuno This reactor will operate on the "something for nothing” system: it win be a breeder reactor which, while producing necessary heat to drive the generating plant, will also “breed" more atomic fuel than it consumes. This is one of the most important developments in the technique of in. dustrial atomic energy, for it promised to have a vital bearing on the skious problem of future fuel supplies rrf the world and will enable energy t c be produced in those vast tracts that are now undeveloped for lack of natural resources. Engineers at the Risley Production Division of (the Atomic Energy Qp. partment are justly proud of the progress that has enabled them to halve the estimated time for putting dustrial atomic power on the map. Th e original estimate was that the big CalderhaH generating plant would operate in about five ycats, but the progress that has been made at Kirwell and at atomic factories means now that the CalderhaH atomic reactors will “become critical"—win start to generate heat—within, pc. haps, 18 months. After a further mqpths the generating plant should be in operation. A New Technique As the extraction of heat from’ the atomic pile is an entirely new technique, this is a major achievement The pile produces its heat by thJ breaking up of .plutonium atoms in a manner and in conditions that art well known to engineers. Their real problem comes in putting that heat to useful purposes. At CalderhaH, heat will be’ taken from the two reactors' by a continuous flow of carbon dioxide gas under pressure. This will flow through the reactor, carrying heat to eight steel towers, 80 feet high, when hot gas will circulate through heat exchangers, turning water into superheated steam to drive the turbines. CalderhaH experts say: “We are rather proud of the technique we hive evolved.” They have justifiable pride in tne fact that the systems they have developed are entirely British, for practicaUy no useful information has come from any other country. It is, in fact, unlikely that any other coumi try has the information available.