BRITAIN DECLARES POLICY ON ATOMIC ENERGY

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 August 1946, Page 5

BRITAIN DECLARES POLICY ON ATOMIC ENERGY

American and Soviet Plans

Acceptance in Integrated

Form

(Rec. 12 p.m.) LONDON, Aug.' 2. Britain has accepted both the American and Russian plans for the control of atomic energy, said the Minister of State, Mr P. J? Noel-Baker, in the House of Commons. He added that Britain believed that the two plans needed to be fused.

The two plans were not in conflict, he added, but dealt with different parts of the subject. They must be integrated. The Australian, Dutch, British, American and Russian members were discussing in the committee of the Atomic Energy Commission means for carrying out this integration and clearing up misunderstandings. He derived encouragement from the fact that though differing proposals were under serious debate there had not been any head-on collision. He would have thought it dangerous if there had been no proposal before the commission. Instead there were two very useful proposals. It would be valuable for the governments concerned to have plenty of time for reflection, thus securing the benefit of prolonged international debate and considering closely the safeguards they would receive if they accepted the surrender of sovereignty involved in the plan for the control of atomic energy. Mr Noel-Baker said: “This Government is prepared, having long taken risk in war, to take risks lor peace.”

FIRST PEACE-TIME USE OF ATOMIC PROJECT

NEW YORK, August 2

Opening new horizons of medical and biological research, the Manhattan atomic project has presented tiny units of radioactive carbon, known as Carbon 14, to various research institutes for special purposes, thereby making the first peace-time use of the atomic project. Each unit of Carbon 14 weighs only a 10,000 th part of an ounce, costs 400 dollars and is capable of emitting 37,000,000 atomic ray particles a second for the next 10,000 to 25,000 years. Carbon 14 will first be used for research in connection with cancer, diabetes, teeth, bones, liver, blood, utilisation of fats in the human body, and the mechanism of photosynthesis, which means the phenomenon whereby plants take energy from sunlight and store it as chemical energy. Photosynthesis is responsible for most of the stored energy used by man, such as coal, oil, wood and food.

In addition to radioactive carbon, atomic energy facilities can produce radioactive forms of rare elements, including radioactive sulphur, phosphorus, and iodine. The greatest benefit from the use of radioactive materials is likely to come from tracer rather than therapeutic technique in investigating the causes of disease and the life process generally. . , , Manhattan engineers said that each tiny unit of Carbon 14 represents 100 to 1000 times as much of isotopes as was hitherto available for research in any single cyclotron produced. J A London cablegram says that the first step in international co-opera-tion among atomic scientists was taken when delegates from all countries at the Atomic Scientists’ Association conference in Oxford agreed to appoint one of their number as a liaison officer for the exchange of information .and ideas. Invitations will be sent to countries not represented at the conference, including Russia, to appoint liaison officers. The British representative is Professor M. H. L. Pryce, Professor of Physics at Oxford.