AMERICAN SALES OF URANIUM

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27733, 10 August 1955, Page 13

AMERICAN SALES OF URANIUM

GENEVA, August 8. Ike United States announced today Ihe world s first price list for the sale and lease of uranium and heavy water. The chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission (Mr Lewis Strauss) said in Geneva that uranium containing 20 per cent. fissionable TJ-235, for use in atomic research renters, would be made available to friendly nations at 25 dollars (about £9) a gramme of contained U-235. For normal uranium metal, the price would be 40 dollars a kilogramme (£6 7s per lb), and for headwater 28 dollars (£10) pgr lb. Heavy water is used as a moderator and “coolant” in certain types of research reactors. .■ ■

Mr Strauss told reporters that the United States had made available 4401 b of enriched U-235 for the use of countries which had concluded bilateral agreements with the United States. He said he understood that Britain had earmarked 441 b for the same use. . The prices announced today were designed to assist friendly nations to establish reactors “for benign purposes.”