RISKS OF ATOM POWER

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27735, 12 August 1955, Page 11

RISKS OF ATOM POWER

Effect Of “Runaway”

. Reactors V GENEVA, August W. Dr. Edward Teller today said that a “runaway” nuclear reactor could be *• as an atom bomb itself. Dr. Teller,'of the University of California, and known as the “father” of the hydrogen bomb, described the danger in a paper read on his behalf to the “Atoms for Peace” Conference in Geneva. He said that “runaway” nuclear furnaces r<ight force the evacuation of entire cities, poison watersheds, and turn stretches of land into forbidden areas for years. He said it could be a “split-second disaster,” but an industrial disaster unknown before to the world. Nuclear fission (atomic energy) must be made as safe as gas and electricity, for the era of atomic power was near at hand. There was an unceasing search in the laboratories of two continents for devices to make nuclear fission safe. “With all the inherent safeguards that can be put into a reactor, there is still no foolproof system,” Dr. Teller’s paper said. “There are, unfortunately, certain dangerous characteristics and this public hazard has been one of our main concerns ” Two British scientists, Dr. W. G. Marley and Mr T. M?Frey, of the Harwell laboratories, supported Dr. Teller’s paper. They said that an outstanding characteristic of nuclear reactors was their potential ability to achieve extremely high poVer levels in a short time. “H adequate control of the machine is lost, a typical nuclear runaway accident may start, and be over in times appreciably less than a second. “Another feature of a possible nuclear runaway is that it does not seem to be very violent. It is less like the blast of an explosion than the crash of a motor-car. But from the decep- 1 tively mild turbulence deadly gases might escape over the countryside. Experiments On Control The American Associated Press reports. from Chicago that an Argonne National Laboratory paper to be read at the Geneva conference today give* details of a nuclear reactor which had been allowed to run wild in more than , 200 experiments. But, the paper reports, the reactor ■ had shut -itself down automatically each time before excessively high temperatures could destroy it. The tests have demonstrated an important safety factor for private industry, which is getting ready to go into the field of atomic energy to supply electric power. The laboratory said yesterday that the reactor, known as Borax 1, literally “blew its top” in the tests, demonstrating the automatic control possible with a properly designed, water-cooled, and moderated nuclear reactor. The experiments simulated hypothetical reactor accidents in which control rods lost effectiveness, allowing power to increase at a rapid rate. The scientists actually tried to destroy the reactor in a test on Juiy 22,' 1954. The power was shot up suddenly and a column of dark grey smoke shot out of the reactor to a height of 80ft. There was a sharp detonation. Although the reactor was damaged, the explosion was a relatively mild one, comparable to a few pounds of T.N.T. There was no atomic explosion which could have been thousands of times greater. Four American laboratory workers accidentally exposed to a possible lethal dose of radio-activity, were used as human “guinea-pigs” in atomic t research, said another report by two American scientists to the conference. The workers, three men and one woman, all survived the exposure and were back at work within 34 days. The accident occurred at the Argonne National Laboratory in 1952. when the workers were accidentally exposed to neutron and gamma radiation while • working on apparatus. The gamma-ray badges (used to disclose any exposure to radiation) which were worn by three of the workers, were so blackened that they had to be specially treated before they could be appraised, the scientists said.

Briton Killed in Mal*ya.—A British soldier was fatally injured and three others were wounded in a battle with a gang of terrorists three-quarters of a mile north of the tin mining town of Rqwang last night. Three terrorists were shot dead in the action.—-Kuala Lumpur, August 10.