Word: fissionable
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...battery's power comes from promethium 147 (one of the more plentiful byproducts of nuclear fission), which emits low-energy beta particles (electrons). Other atomic batteries have attempted to turn beta particles directly into electric current, but they have often run into trouble because the particles damage the current-yielding parts of the battery. The Kidde-Elgin battery sidesteps this difficulty by mixing the promethium 147 with a phosphor (light-giving substance) and enclosing the mixture in transparent plastic. Electrons from the Pm-147 make the phosphor glow, and its light is turned into electricity by a photoelectric surface...
...Fact & Fission. P.R.D.C. did much to dispel these fears last week by submitting the testimony of five top-drawer atom scientists and reactor experts. Their verdict, summarized by Professor Hans A. Bethe of Cornell University: "By the application of theoretical physics to what we now know, a fast-breeder reactor can be constructed and operated without undue risk to the public ... its operation is safe." Furthermore, AEC stressed that its Monroe permit is only for the construction of the plant, not its operation. Unless all the bugs are worked out of the fast breeder by the time the plant...
...catalyzed fusion could be made practical, it would have advantages over known methods of releasing nuclear energy. It would not require expensive fuel, as uranium fission does, and it would not create dangerously radioactive fission products. It would not need excessively high temperature, as thermonuclear (H-bomb) reactions do. It might burn peacefully, almost like an old-fashioned fire of chemical fuel...
...Pointed out that strontium 90 derives not from the testing of big H-bombs alone-which Stevenson would stop-but from any process of nuclear fission. "Thus the idea that we can 'stop sending this dangerous material into the air,' by concentrating upon small fission weapons, is based upon apparent unawareness of facts...
Boos for Ike. The Springfield response was good enough to get him really steamed up for California. In San Francisco he poured on the sarcasm ("You've got to respect [Eisenhower's] clear and forthright opposition to inflation, deflation, fission, fusion and confusion, doubt, doom and gloom, fog and smog"). And once again he asked: "Are we seriously asked to trust . . . the decision over the hydrogen bomb to ... Nixon?" And once more, the crowd roared: "No!" In Los Angeles that night, 25,000 aggressive, confident Democrats caught the new spirit as Adlai carried on at Gilmore Field. They...