Word: reactors
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From within Washington's secrecy-walled atomic energy councils, a rumble of dispute occasionally bursts into notice like a volcano's reminder of subterranean turmoil. Such a rumble was audible in Washington last week in the debate over whether the U.S. should build another reactor to produce plutonium, a radioactive element now much needed for compact, low-fallout nuclear weapons. Yes, said Congress. No, said the President. Underlying the conflict was the chronic tension between the Administration's desire to avoid needless expenditure and military leaders' nagging fears that the U.S. is skimping on national defense...
Over the past two years, the Joint Chiefs of Staff have decided that the plutonium output of the U.S. Government's reactors at Hanford. Wash, and Savannah River, S.C. is not large enough to meet future needs for tactical nuclear weapons and air-defense missiles. This year, at the urging of the Joint Chiefs, the Atomic Energy Commission decided to put in a request for a third plutonium reactor. The nickel-nipping Budget Bureau, backed up by President Eisenhower and Defense Secretary Neil H. McElroy, overruled the request...
...addition, a lightweight atomic reactor built by Aerojet went on display at Rome's International Congress on Electronics and Atomic Energy; another went into operation in Sicily, while still another is operating at the International Science Center at the Brussels Fair...
...Navy's growing nuclear potential. At the General Dynamics Electric Boat Division, the Navy launched Skipjack, the U.S.'s fifth nuclear submarine, a $60 million model with a special shark shape designed for high-speed underwater maneuverability. Abuilding on the ways was Triton, a giant-sized double-reactor, radar-picket submarine, biggest submarine ever built. Beyond that the Navy last week laid the keel of its third nuclear submarine designed specifically for mating in 1959-60 to the much-talked-about Polaris solid-charge missile (TIME, March...
...really dependable safety device, say Huston and Miller, should tell on its own when the reactor is starting an excursion. The best way to trigger its action is to combine a pad of material containing uranium with a layer of high-melting solder. When the neutrons in the reactor rise above a critical level, showing that an excursion has started, the uranium fissions at a rate that creates enough heat to melt the solder. Then high-pressure gas will shoot neutron-absorbing poison into the reactor. Even if other controls have failed, this last-ditch nuclear fire extinguisher will keep...