Word: aec
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...Energy Commission from discussing his report at last summer's Geneva Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, said that radiation from H-bomb tests could cause "tens of thousands" of harmful mutations in the next generation of Americans. And more recently, Thomas E. Murray, member of the AEC, declared that atmospheric contamination "could be catastrophic. A sufficiently large number of such explosions would render the earth uninhabitable to man." He went on to say that the "new power we have in hand can affect the lives of generations still unborn...
...have been better timed to supply the zirconium, which is needed not only for submarine and military reactors but for commercial power plants. Last week New York's Consolidated Edison Co. and Chicago's Commonwealth Edison Co. (TIME, April 18, 1955) got a final green light from AEC to build two big nuclear power plants to generate a total 416,000 kw. of electricity. Their reactors alone will require an estimated 50,000 Ibs. of zirconium...
...postwar years, National Lead Co., Union Carbide & Carbon Corp. and others learned to produce commercial-grade zirconium as a hardening material for steel (1,500,000 Ibs. at $10 a Ib. was shipped in 1955). But in 1948, with the start of the atomic power plant program, the AEC found it needed almost pure zirconium. Since it does not become radioactive, it is an ideal construction material for light, compact, thermal-type reactors such as those on the submarines Nautilus and Sea Wolf. A Bureau of Mines pilot plant and, later, Carborundum Co. developed processes to refine 99.5% pure zirconium...
...AEC will expand production nearly tenfold. Using a sodium-based process, National Distillers will turn out 1,000,000 Ibs. annually for the AEC, build a multimillion dollar plant at Ashtabula, Ohio. By modifying the "Kroll Process" for refining titanium, Carborundum Co. will boost production from 325,000 Ibs. to 825,000 Ibs. annually. Using its own process, National Research Corp. will produce 700,000 Ibs. annually for five years, collect $22.7 million. It will build a $6,000,000 plant at Pensacola, Fla. to start production by early 1957 from beach sand...
Reactors & Chemicals. The three producers are building plants with a capacity of about 1,500,000 Ibs. apiece per year, will thus have enough for both AEC and private needs. Aside from zirconium, other rare metals may come from AEC's program, e.g., thorium, currently under study as a cheap source for nuclear fuel...