Atomic Fission Holds Key To Host of New Products

By W.P. Snead
(June 12, 1954, Saturday Night Magazine)

Atomic power, at present, can only be developed from the 0.7 per cent of pure uranium that has a mass, or atomic weight, of 25 - that is, is composed of atoms that are 25 times the weight of an atom of hydrogen. The splitting of these atoms in a nuclear reactor will not only produce usable heat, but also convert part of the 99.3 per cent of the uranium with a mass of 238 into another element, plutonium, of mass 239, which is also fissionable and can be used as a secondary nuclear fuel.

How potent the small percentage of uranium 25 is, was calculated by Dr. David A. Keys, of the National Research Council of Canada, in a recent address. He computed that one pound of uranium 235 releases energy equivalent to that obtained from burning 1300 tons of coal, and the complete fission of 2.75 tons of it would release, as much energy as the total Hydro-Electric power developed in Canada in 1953. This amount of 235 would be contained in 400 tons of the metal.

It is the reactor, or atomic pile, that makes possible commercial usage, as differentiated from the uncontrolled reaction of an atomic bomb.

There are different types of reactors. The first type is used for the making of plutonium, with heat as a mere by product. A power pile is operated on the reverse basis, with heat as the primary purpose. The third type is called a breeder reactor which, while producing heat, also produces more fuel than is consumed. This is accomplished by using plutonium and uranium together as the core of the pile.

The chemical and metallurgical processes required to obtain the pure uranium metal for these piles are possible the most involved and drawn out of any yet devised by man. In one process the crude uranium oxide is reduced to a gas, uranium hexafluoride. This gas is then pumped through an intricate series of chambers separated by membranes with holes of such minute size that they delay the heavier 238 atoms sufficiently to allow the lighter 235 atoms to be concentrated gradually.

The other method, which starts with the dissolving of uranium oxide in nitric acid, ends with the casting of ingots of the metal. While the dimension of the ingots and of the bars that are eventually placed in the reactors are secret, and idea of their size can be obtained from the size of the rolling mill at the United States Atomic Energy Commission's plant at Fernald, Ohio, used to roll them down to the size required. This mill, built by the Birdsboro Steel Foundry and Machine Company, is in steady, high volume poduction.

That commercial power is obtainable from the atom is demonstrated by the Atomic Power Plant of the U.S. Submarine Nautilus. In the United States such major companies as General Electric and Westinghouse are building full - scale atomic power plants that are expected to be able to compete successfully with conventional power plants within five to ten years.

In Britain, where research has been concentrated on power development, two full size atomic power stations will be built.

Because of the vast scope of the research that is being applied to the development of atomic energy, the whole series of problems ranging from the processing of the crude ore through all the multiple stages of processing the metal, and finally producing power from it, will likely be solved with much greater speed than any comparable project in history.

We in Canada are fortunate in having great stores of uranium. While much attention has been paid to the few rich discoveries made at Great Bear Lake and at Beaverlodge, it is evident, even now in this Model T stage of atomic development, that low cost processes must be developed to extract the maximum of uranium from the enormous tonnages available in such areas as the Algoma Blind River sections of Ontario, where uranium ores were laid down along the shores of a vast pre-historic bay and other fields that have yet to be located, if we are to participate fully in the atomic age.

Major companies interested in this area are conducting considerable experiments and developing new processes in laboratory and pilot plant facilities provided in Ottawa. Other research groups throughout the world are engaged in similar project, but the barriers of secrecy raised by the various governments are an obstruction in the exchange of information that would be of mutual aid to progress.

But this period at the beginning of the atomic age is not producing only weapons and power. It is also producing the keys to many doors that research scientists have been seeking to unlock. They have discovered, for example, that the squeeze bottle plastic, Polyethylene, when exposed to radiation, changes its characteristics considerably. Previously it would melt in hot water; after exposure to radiation it becomes capable of withstanding steam.

Such a transformation opens up a whole host of possibilities. New alloys, new metals, new plastics, even new foods, all come into prospect.

We stand on the thresholds of an age where impossibilities will ultimately become possible - perhaps even the possibility of learning, through the hydrogen bomb, the sun's secret of producing infinite energy.

Next story: Fallout: The Silent Killer.