Generator Outlives Design Life

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31151, 30 August 1966, Page 20

Generator Outlives Design Life

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter) BALTIMORE (Maryland). A nuclear generator built by the Martin 1 Company, which has outlived its design life, j is still functioning efficiently 15,000 feet below ■' the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.

Known as SNAP-7E, the seven-watt unit, using isotopes as fuel, is claimed to be the first of its type to be used undersea. It was developed for the United States Atomic Energy Commission and built for a service life of two years. It was implanted on July 13,1964, 750 miles off the east coast of Jacksonville, Florida, to provide power for a Navy acoustic beacon designed to help both navigation and deep sea research. The Navy’s underwater sound laboratory at New London, Connecticut, reports that the generator is working well, supplying power to the underwater beacon which emits an electronically-produced sound about once every 60 seconds. This acoustic pulse enables surface ships and deeply submerged submarines in the area to determine their precise position without the assistance of shore-based navigational aids. The beacon is also promoting studies to determine the effects of deep sea environ-

e ment on the transmission of 1- sound over long distances. s SNAP-7E, like various simii lar units, contains a radior isotope fuel core which gradue ally decays, giving off heat t which is converted directly • into electrical energy by f thermo-electric elements t grouped around the core. The - generators have no moving f parts.