Auckland Nuclear Gear To Be Sold To U.S.

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31139, 16 August 1966, Page 16

Auckland Nuclear Gear To Be Sold To U.S.

r.Vew Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, August 15.

New Zealand will soon be earning valuable overseas funds through the export of highly-specialised scientific equipment developed by senior research students in the physics department at Auckland University.

The piece of equipment is called a polarised ion source, for which there is estimated to be a market at least worth 5 million dollars in the United States alone. Aligned Spins Used in conjunction with Van De Graff particle accelerators, the polarised ion source enables a beam of “spinning” particles, with the spins all aligned in one direction, to be produced. It enables the structure of matter to be studied, at relatively low energies, in greater detail than ever before. The demand for polarised ion sources throughout the world is growing, and a company has been registered in Auckland to produce them, and other equipment for nuclear research.

Called the Auckland Nuclear Accessory Company, Ltd., it has three shareholders, Professor E. R. Collins, of the physics department, and two senior research students who have played the major role in the development of the source, Messrs H. F. Glavish, and B - . A. Mackinnon. Mr Glavish, with another honours student, Mr S. Whineray, who is now overseas, started work on the ion

source six years ago under the direction of Professor Collins. Joined Team Mr Mackinnon, an electronics specialist, joined the team in 1963. The new company will produce under contract to an American principal, the Oak Ridge Technical Enterprises Corporation, an offspring of the United States National Laboratories operated by Union Carbide for the Atomic Energy Commission. The Oak Ridge Corporation has surveyed the market potential in the United States and estimates that at least 20 sources at a cost of about 250,000 dollars each, can be sold in the next few years. The three shareholders will continue their work at the university, and have plans to apportion a part of the company profits to research grants.