N.Z. ADVISED TO ADHERE TO HYDRO POWER

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 September 1949, Page 2

N.Z. ADVISED TO ADHERE TO HYDRO POWER

WELLINGTON, This Day (P.A.).— When atomic power becomes a peaceful commercial proposition, New Zealand will do better to adhere to hydro-electric generation. This opinion was expressed by a New Zealander, Professor G. C. J. Dalton, who has been working at the nuclear research station at Harwell, England. Professor Dalton arrived by the Rangitoto to take up the Chair of Mechanical Engineering at Auckland University College. He pointed out that, whereas; atomic power involved the consumption of a scarce, expensive raw material, the rivers would continue to provide hydro power with no such cost.

The peaceful arrival of atomic power would, he said, bring no startling changes from the modern style of life. Power would be manifested in the form of heat, which would then be used to generate powerdriven turbines and so forth in the same way as heat from fuels was l now used. Professor Dalton saw no great change in the price of electricity to the household. Five-sixths of the cost of electric power was the transmission cost, he said, and whether generation from from atomic heat was, more or less expensive it would only reflect in one-sixth of the bill. The best result, he said, would be more power. Professor Dalton said that while American nuclear scientists were possibly better off for machinery than the British scientists, he thought the British research was proceeding more thoroughly on a longer term basis.