Uranium And Coal Power

Northern Advocate, 29 August 1947, Page 5

Uranium And Coal Power

1 To 3,000,000 ?

(Rec. 10.30 a.mj LONDON, Aug. 28. Another five years would be needed to determine what proportion of atomic power may be obtained from sources of atomic energy, said Professor J. D. Cockcroft, at the British Association conference at Dundee.

Atomic-energy piles produced enormous quantities of radio-active materials.

Safe disposal of these products was a major problem requiring a very cautious approach. The major part of the cost of atomic research would be incurred in withdrawing from atomic-energy piles the uranium rods to extract nuclear fission products. If the whole atomic energy of U-235 or U-238 were used, one ton of uranium would probably equal about 3,000,000 tons of coal, but a further five years of experimenting were needed to prove whether this prediction was correct. NEW CONTROL

Marking a new stage in the 14 months’ search for international atomic control, seven nations at a meeting of the control committee of the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission yesterday announced their support of detailed proposals for the actual operation of a global security agency. They were the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada, France, China and Brazil. Russia, however, has not so far given her opinion. The Soviet lefused to take part in drawing up the proposals because they were based on the Bernard Baruch plan. SIX DOCUMENTS The recommendations, which took three months to prepare, came before the committee in the form of six documents drawn up by working groups. They amount to a plan for an agency that would have sole control of all dangerous atomic activities, would have the final decision on what military research should be outlawed, and would have ownership of all atomic ores, fuels and possibly dangerous production plants. A 1 report on the scheme will be made :o the Security Council.