HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27196, 27 September 1949, Page 6

HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER

BEST ECONOMIC PROPOSITION NUCLEAR SCIENTIST’S VIEW PA WELLINGTON, Sept. 26. When atomic power becomes a peaceful commercial proposition, New Zealand will do better to adhere to hydroelectric 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. Professor Dalton pointed out, whereas atomic power involved the consumption of scarce, expensive raw material, 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 power, drive turbines, and so forth, in the same way as heat from fuels was now Used. Professor Dalton foresaw no great change in the price of electricity to the household. Five-sixths of the cost of electric power was transmission cost, he said, and whether generation 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 British scientists, he thought British research was proceeding thoroughly on a longer-term basis.