POWER PREDICTION

Grey River Argus, 21 September 1945, Page 3

POWER PREDICTION

BY ATOMIC BOMB TECHNICIAN

LONDON. September 17.

Professor M. -E. Oliphant, a member oft the atomic bomb technical committee, in an address to the Rotary Club, Birmingham said: “The power of nuclear energy would in future reDiace all other forms of power for all large-scale production. The production costs of atomic power were already tumbling. Within ten years power stations would be working under atomic power. It would not be long before* atomic power would be made with a force equivalent to one million tons of T.N.T., and subsequently ten million tons. It was “just rot” to think Britain and America could retain the secret of the bomb. Any industrial country would have it in five years, and any determined industrial country in two. He described the use of the bomb against cities as a tragedy, and contended that it could have been effectively demonstrated against a naval base in Tokio Bay. If the scientists had controlled the use of the bomb, it would never have been used against Hiroshima and Ngasaki. It was not possible to complain, if atomic bombs were dropped on New York or Lond°n’ PRETORIA, Sept. 17. The South African Government will issue a proclamation to-morrow, introducing control over mining and export of uranium and its compounds. Pitchblende from which uranium is extracted is found in North-west Cape province near the Orange River. CAPE TOWN, Sept. 18. Atom bombs propelled without pilots to any part of the world would dominate future wars, declared Air Chief Marshal Harris, in an interview. He added that the atom bomb made invasion a thing of the past Half-a-dozen atom bombs would make hostile entry into any continent an impossibility. The new bomb had entirely changed the role of navies. Even this war had shown the battleship was fast becoming out of date in sea battles. It did little except get sunk. .