Growing Need Seen For Nuclear Power

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31588, 27 January 1968, Page 14

Growing Need Seen For Nuclear Power

“The modem nations are doubling their electrical capacity every seven years, so nuclear power sources are becoming more and more necessary,” said Professor E. W. Titterton, of the Australian National University, in his presidential address yesterday to the mathematics, physics and astro-physics sections of the Australia and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science.

“Power stations are very greedy, so it is best that they use replenishable power where possible, such as solar and hydro power. The fossil fuels, coal and oil, are finite and cannot be replaced. The world will run out of oil

within a few hundred years and of coal in 1000 years at the present rate of consumption.

“Now, we have the prospect of being able to convert all the uranium and thorium on the earth,” he said. These deposits would last for 50,000 years. “We may learn to use the sun, although this does not look easy. We may eventually be able to fuse an isotope of hydrogen, deuterium, but this requires such fantastic temperatures it cannot be done at present. Some time man may be able to use deuterium and there is all we would ever need in the oceans

y until the end of. foreseeable y time. r “We have no option but to r develop nuclear power if we 1 are to go forward and in both e New Zealand and Australia e there is talk of development,” il said Professor Titterton.

Nuclear power stations had 90 per cent availability, 42 per cent efficiency, and 10 per cent lower cost. Nuclear

bombs of low-energy yield could also be turned to useful purposes. “The possibility of nuclear explosions is one of the controlling influences in world politics, but 1 don’t anticipate a nuclear holocaust,” he said. “I don't think people would be so stupid.” Radioactive waste products from power stations were put in stainless-steel cans which were supposed to last for ever. They could be buried in dry, disused mines or packed in clay. One enterprising suggestion had been to send the waste by rocket to orbit the sun.

“Nuclear power sources, because they are small, are an attractive method of propulsion for rockets and work is being done on this,” said Professor Titterton.