BRITISH DEVELOPMENTS IN NUCLEAR POWER USE

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28529, 7 March 1958, Page 8

BRITISH DEVELOPMENTS IN NUCLEAR POWER USE

In a few years, the cost of nuclear power plants was likely to drop from between £llO and £l2O a kilowatt of output to £BO to £9O because of continuallyimproving techniques. Within 10 years, this form of electric generation would become a serious competitor for certain types of hydro-electric project, said Mr W. H. Qowen, senior lecturer in electrical engineering at the University of Canterbury. Mr Bowen made nuclear power plants his chief subject of investigation during five months’ refresher leave in Britain. New Zealand would not be ready for such developments until nuclear costs dropped still further, Mr Bowen said. The costs quoted were for Britain. New Zealand would have to import nearly everything except the concrete and hydro-electricity would probably remain cheapest for some time. Mr Bowen inspected the British prototype nuclear power station at Calder Hall, spent a fortnight at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, and also visited the additional four new and large nuclear power plants now under construction. “Consortium” “Consortium” was the name now in common usage for the groups of firms which undertook these contracts. An electrical engineering firm was usually the main contractor and co-ordinator, Mr Bowen said. It also had the partnership of a mechanical engineering firm for the design and construction of the heat exchangers and cooling equipment; i the advice of physicists, and building contractors for the ferroconcrete structures. Separate big consortiums were building the four new nuclear power stations. The largest plant, Mr Bowen said, would have an output of 500,000 k.w. compared with Roxburgh’s ultimate development to about 320,000 k.w. It was confidently expected that the new nuclear stations would produce 10 to 15 per cent, more than their contract rating because improved methods were continually being discovered.

Each of these stations was based on the Calder Hall, prototype, using gas-cooled graphite-moder-ated reactors. Even higher output was sought. “This is a ‘must’ for Britain because of the declining supply of fuel for the coal-driven electric generators,” Mr Bowen said.

The Atomic Energy Research Establishment was building a new plant in Dorsetshire to study highenergy reactors using enriched fuels. Present stations used natural uranium containing 99.3 per cent, of uranium 238 and only .7 per cent, of uranium 235. The new plant would use a much greater proportion of U 235, or plutonium. Another experimental plant to use this fuel was

being constructed at Doumreay, in Scotland, Mr BoWen said. All this work involved new techniques and the working of hitherto rare metals, such as beryllium and zerconium. Mr Bowen sai<4 the solution of such problems had put many feathers in the caps of British firms but it was this developmental work which made costs at present so high. Steam Generators Britain had not abandoned the idea of coal stations. Larger units were under investigation and he had seen one steam-driven turbogenerator producing, on the test bed, 250,000 k.w., Mr Brown said. Designs were being prepared for units producing 500.000 k.w. The introduction of such generators could effect considerable economies and more efficient usage of existing British coal supplies. In all branches of industry the advances in technology were spectacular, Mr Bowen said. Much greater use was being made of electronic computers in the design of conventional and unconventional apparatus. He had seen machines, entirely controlled by electronic computers, shaping intricate components for aircraft and radar sets. In some cases the machining time for such items had thus been reduced from three weeks to eight hours. The product was more accurate and better-finished than any made by manually-controlled machines.