Word: aec
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Atomic Energy Commission. Advocates of AEC control argue that since sophisticated space vehicles will be atomic-powered, the fission-knowledgeable Atomic Energy Commission is the logical agency to supervise perfection of such vehicles. Moreover, AEC is a civilian agency already in a scientific business, with a keen understanding of military needs, e.g., hydrogen bombs, as well as civilian problems, e.g., atomic power. Opponents point out that AEC maintains no launching sites or rocket laboratories and has insufficient space-trained personnel, could be no more than a management organization farming out work...
...large nuclear power plant completed to date, the 60,000-kw. station built by Westinghouse Electric Corp. for AEC and the Duquesne Light Co. of Shippingport, Pa. (TIME, Nov. 25), is a major milestone for the U.S. -and a perfect example of the cost problem. Westinghouse's original cost estimate was $37.8 million. The plant will ultimately cost about $100 million. The Government paid 95% of the bill to get it operating; the power produced is so expensive that AEC also pays a heavy subsidy to make it marketable...
...privately sponsored plants, which comprise the bulk of the program. Builders are largely on their own, working under fixed-price contracts with risk of heavy losses. As a result, one small experimental plant is completed, only four are under construction. Two others have been contracted for, but negotiations with AEC for another five are poking along, and four more have been canceled...
...contrast, U.S. manufacturers have only eight power-plant contracts around the world, most of them small. In addition to costs, AEC tightly restricts sales of enriched uranium, needed for U.S.-designed plants, refuses to guarantee foreign nations all they need; Britain, on the other hand, gives a lifetime fuel guarantee with each contract. Still another complaint is insurance. British underwriters have banded together to form the British Insurance (Atomic Energy) Committee to write a plan for insuring foreign nuclear plants. The U.S., while it has finally developed a joint Government-private insurance program for domestic reactors, has no plan...
There is little doubt among nuclear experts that the U.S. must push ahead much faster than AEChairman Strauss is willing to go. Last week, AEC was trying to work out a compromise plan to supply more funds to private industry for research and development. The need is bigger than that. One comprehensive plan was laid out recently by Willis Gale, chairman of Chicago's Commonwealth Edison Co., which will operate the big Dresden power station in 1960. Chairman Gale dismisses the public- v. private-power argument by prefacing his plan with the suggestion that Government aid go both...