ATOM-POWERED FREIGHTERS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28888, 7 May 1959, Page 15

ATOM-POWERED FREIGHTERS

Eight Plans Handed To Admiralty (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, May 5. Britain is going full speed ahead in the race to build nuclear-powered merchant ships. The project, revealed by the Admiralty today, is being treated as a matter of urgency. The Atomic Energy Authority and seven private firms and combines have handed over their individual plans for atomic engines to a committee of experts. One firm is offering an atomic engine, with a guaranteed performance, in 30 months. The plans were outlined at a meeting arranged by the Admiralty, and attended by senior Government officials and representatives of Britain’s shipping, shipbuilding and marine engineering industries.

An Admiralty statement said that all the eight nuclear reactor systems possessed different characteristics, such as weight, size, capital arid operating costs and other technical factors. Not all were “equally advanced for early use.”

Each one would have to be examined for safety by the Atomic Energy Authority and the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation. The claims made for each had now to be assessed by a technical sub-committee set up by the Marine Nuclear Propulsion Committee.

The Admiralty said that on the basis of the sub-committee’s report, it would be possible to judge which system offered the best advantage, balanced against the time it would take to put into operation. At the same time, the main committee would be examining ways of financing the first ship. The Ministry of Transport committee on marine nuclear safety would continue its work on the problems of safety in nuclear ships, and in ports and harboursThe goal of the committee, the statement said, was the “economic nuclear merchant ship.”

SOVIET OFFER TO JAPAN

Guarantee Of Neutrality

(Rec. 11 p.m.) MOSCOW, May 5.

The Soviet Union has offered to guarantee Japan’s permanent neutrality under a bilateral or multilateral pact, the official Soviet news agency, Tass, said today.

The agency quoted a Soviet Note handed to Japan yesterday which said Japan’s security lay not in atomic armament but in permanent neutrality. Japan could either have a pact with the Soviet Union alone or with the Soviet Union, Communist China, the United States, and other Powers in the Pacific.

The Note suggested the establishment in the Pacific of a “zone of peace,” free of atomic and nuclear weapons.

Recqgd Equalled.— The lowa sprinter. Bill Woodhouse, equalled the world 100 yard record tonight with a 9.3 sec run.—Abilene (Texas), May 5.