Word: reactor
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...anyone wants to build a low-power nuclear reactor, the Atomic Energy Commission will tell him how. Last week the AEC, jointly with Britain and Canada, announced a new "Declassification Guide," which permits the release of such information. Still restricted, of course, is information about large-scale reactors (which make plutonium) and about atomic weapons themselves...
...three governments," said the AEC, "have determined that the release of information . . . will speed the training of nuclear reactor engineers and technicians and will hasten atomic energy development in these countries, particularly for peacetime applications. It was determined that this information would not aid rival nations in the development of military applications of atomic energy. Low-power research reactors cannot be used for producing atomic weapons or power...
...materialized. Some critics blame the Atomic Energy Commission for yielding to the military and devoting too much of its attention to developing atomic weapons. Speaking last week before the Detroit Section of the Society of Automotive Engineers, Dr. Lawrence R. Hafstad, director of the AEC's Division of Reactor Development, answered the critics. If practical atomic power ever comes, said Dr. Hafstad, it will probably be because of, not in spite of, military needs...
Elusive Materials. In designing nuclear reactors, Hafstad said, the scientist cannot depend on familiar, well-behaved materials. Most of them are useless. They absorb too many neutrons (and so slow down the reaction) or they are quickly damaged by corrosion, heat or radiation. The AEC is building a special reactor to test the performance of various materials for piping, shielding, etc. Until it has been in operation for some time, reactor designers will not know for certain what materials they dare...
...vast importance. In the roaring, naming innards of modern industry there are many goings-on too dangerous for human eyes to watch. A cheap, expendable Vidicon can creep up close to a new machine being tested "to destruction." It can brave the flood of gamma rays from a nuclear reactor. It can ride on a guided missile or watch the detonating mechanism of an atomic bomb. Up to the time when it "dies," the faithful tube will report what it sees to distant human watchers...