Mobile Atom Power Plants

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27734, 11 August 1955, Page 13

Mobile Atom Power Plants

GENEVA, August 9. Mobile atomic power plants are being developed for the British Army and the Royal Air Force, it was disclosed at the Atoms-for-Peace Conference in Geneva, according to Chapman Pincher of the “Daily Express.” ‘‘They will probably be mounted in large tank-like vehicles to provide electric power for landing fields and for troops stationed in areas where fuel is scare.” Pincher said. The design of the stations, known as ‘‘packaged power plants,” is secret, but some idea of how they may be built is given by an American scientist. Dr. Walter Zinn. who described a new atomic furnace, operating “like a huge steam kettle.” Uranium fuel would generate highpressure steam to drive a turbine, Pincher said. Uranium in Cxechoalovakia.—Uranium ore denosits have been discovered near Minisek, 20 miles southwest of Prague. They are believed to be the biggest in Europe, the Prague corresnondent of the ‘‘Daily Telegraoh” reported.—London. Aug. 10.

Sir John Cockcroft said that the requirements of nuclear fuel for this task depended on the efficiency in the use of the fission energy of uranium. “If a 33 per cent, utilisation could be obtained one ton would do the work of 1.000,C00 tons of coal.” Most of Britain would be running on atomic power in 20 years, and every new power station built in the British Isles from then on would be atomic, scientists were told in papers presented at the conference.

British atomic experts have been discussing informally Britain’s plan for producing most of the country's power by nuclear energy with scientists and engineers from the 72 nations now meeting at Geneva. A conference source said today that international experts generally agree that Britain it at least three years ahead of any other nation in the practical application of energy for industrial purposes. In another five years, British atomic scientists should be able to produce electricity as cheaply as it is now obtained from coal and oil and thereafter the costs will progressively diminish, an official of the British Atomic Energy Committee said today. Power from the Calder Hall atomic station, which will be fully operating next year, would cost only slightly more initially than the conventionallyproduced electricity. By 1965. Britain will have 17 atomic powei' stations in operation, replacing something like 8,000,000 tons of'coal. Ten years later, there will be atomic stations replacing 40,000,000 tons of coal working, the official said. British firms showing atomic exhibits at Geneva reported keen interest by prospective foreign customers in the construction and installation of complete atomic power stations, as well as atomic research reactors. Cost of Reactors One spokesman said that a full-size atomic power station containing two reactors would probably cost between £15.000.000 and £17,000,000 to build. British firms could probably supply research reactors from between just under £lOO,OOO and £ 1.000,000. The Atomic Energy Committee official said Britain was unlikely to follow the American lead and issue a price list of atomic materials for sale or lease in the near future. Atomic information and materials under bilateral agreements have already been supplied by Britain to France, Denmark and Australia, but details of financial arrangements involved have not been disclosed. Comparative Costs Mr, J. A. Jukes, of Britain’s Atomic Energy Authority, told the conference today that nuclear electricity should cost the same as or less than presentday electricity. “The first atomic power stations to be built will contain gas-cooled graphite-moderated reactors similar to those nearly completed at Calder Hall (in Cumberland). Assuming a credit for the sale of the plutonium, the cost of nuclear electricity should be equal to, or below, the cost of electricity from coal-fired stations,” he said.