HARNESSING THE ATOM

Southland Times, Issue 25746, 9 August 1945, Page 4

HARNESSING THE ATOM

SCIENTIFIC VALUE OF EXPERIMENTS

(Special) CHRISTCHURCH, Aug. 8. Though some scientists in New Zealand have apparently been aware of the research which has led to the production of atomic bombs, and a few may have an inkling of the lines which the research has taken, the security silence in which atomic research has proceeded during the war has been such that scientific workers in Christchurch are unable to give any authentic information on how success has been achieved. Scientifically, the production of atomic bombs has its chief importance extrinsically—it represents a momentous discovery, the harnessing of atomic power, dimly foreseen when Lord Rutherford broke up the atom and paved the way for subsequent research and since then the goal of many famous scientists throughout the world. As such, it is a discovery which, it is thought, may be the prelude to an age of a new energy replacing existing fuels on a revolutionary scale. BOMBARDMENT OF ATOMS

While he was entirely unaware of the lines which the research had finally taken, said Dr D. B. Macleod, act-irig-Professor of Physics at Canterbury University College, the essential principle involved in experimenting was the bombardment of a collection of atoms, of uranium, for instance, with very high velocity particles. Occasionally one of these particles would hit the nucleus of the atom, causing it to be disrupted, in the process of which a large quantity of energy might be liberated, especially in comparison with the “trigger” force which initiated the disruption. It had been known, he said, that if a number of these atoms could be exploded at the same time a very. vast amount of energy would be released. The fear had been that an uncontrollable chain process might be started. He did not know exactly how success had been achieved with the new bombs, but presumably the bomb incorporated a substance in which such a chain process could run on. Before the war only three radio-active substances —uranium, thorium, and photoactinium—showed complete smashing of the atom when hit, or smashing into two distinct big parts. Whether research since had progressed to the use of other elements for this type of fission he did not know. The discovery was a momentous one to the scientific world—the first time man had in any way succeeded in harnessing the energy of the atom, the possibility of which had been opened up substantially as a result of Lord Rutherford’s earlier experiments, and had long been foreseen and discussed by world scientists. Though caution was necessary in the absence of exact information, it might well prove to be a most important step towards further discoveries and changes, in, for instance, the replacement of existing fuels by a new energy. ATOMIC ENERGY The physics department of the college yesterday was able to provide what is apparently the latest publication on the subject, a report on uranium and atomic power in the, “Journal of Applied Physics,” of September, 1939. This was an article by Dr R. B. Roberts, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, and Dr J. B. H. Kuper, of the Washington Biophysical Institute. The outlook then was apparently not promising, for after commenting on speculation about releasing atomic energy to furnish a new source of power, their concluding comment was that “the day of free atomic power is

probably not yet in sight.” There were insufficient data to say whether a “uranium powerhouse” was a possibility, there appeared to be serious difficulties in establishing the necessary chain process, and the amount of energy required did not compare favourably with the amount released. . On the basis of experiments to that date, the article stated that the energy released per atom of uranium “burned” was 200,000,000 electron volts, compared with four for coal, this ratio becoming 17,000 to one on an equal weight basis. If uranium were to replace the 500,000,000 tons of coal used annually in that country the amount of uranium consumed would increase 15,000 per cent. The present situation was that a chain reaction could not be ruled out, but that there was no evidence that it would really occur.