Himalayan Times (1954)

fix . *iw#.l«B*« tyi-i* W»y 2, 1954

PEACEFUL USES OF THE ATOM

The atom has twp aspects— J.he dreadful an 1 tho useful. The
dreadful aspect of the atom has" become recently focnssed flue to
the Hydrogen bomb experiments

Theso lines deal with the peaceful and useful aspects of the
atom Tho multi purpose atom can trace the course of a disease
through a vein as much as kill pests iu fields and .preserve food
for the future. Other uses of the atom aro also described here.

Late in-1953, Gordon Dean, former
chairman of the U. S. Atomic Energy
Commission, stated in his book "Report
on the Atom" that an atomically —power-
ed locomotive might possibly be develop-
ed during the next decade. Today such
a locomotive has been designed and is
considered eminently practical.

Another outstanding use of atomic
energy which has been developed much
more rapidly than was gen rally expected
is its application to ship pr pulsion.
The first ship to have an atomic'
engine is the U. S. submarine 'Nautilus' 1
launched early this year Th" knowledge
gained from operation of the 'Nautilus'
will contribute immeasurably to the
ultimate use of atomic power in pisscn
ger liners. .

Progress in applying atomic power to
produce electricity has also been made
at much faster, pace than was considered
possible, even a couple of years ago
Today, construction of a fullscale atomio
power plant designed to produce 60 000
killowatts of e'ectrieal energy (enough to
supply a city of 100,000 people) is soon
to be started in the United Stats and
the building of another such olant is
already under way in Great Britain
"Breeder" Reactor

An oxciting development in this sphere
was announced last year — a 'breeder'
reactor, which creates more fuel than it
consumes., As yet- the breeder is still in

the experimental stage and scientist be-
lieve that'it will have to be operative five
years or more before it yields as much
new fuel as was invested in it originally.

Rut eventually it means that every
piece of uranium can be utilised as atomic
fuel. Present known world uranium re-
serves indicate a potential world atonvc
fuel reserve at least 2.") times greater
than our fossil fuel supply of coal, oil
or gas. Atomic fuel supplies therefore
represent by far the laig^st source for
the world's fntur-- energy.

One of tho latest and most dramatic
'atom for peace1 development is 'the
atomic batter-v which converts atomio
i pr>rgy directly into electricity Scienti-
sts see many pnssibiiit ie^ in the new
battery. Theoretically it could be used
as self-contained source of elei tricky for
electrically-operated eqiiipmrnt such as
vaccum cleaners, radios, washing machines,
electric Btoves and so on

Up to the present, tho most valuable
and widespread use of atom has been
the employment of radio isoto; e< These
are ordinary substances such as iron
cobalt or phosphorus which hive been
made radioactive in atomic reap!or.and;
as a result give off rays by which they
can be traced. If a radiostope is ' in-
jected into something — a man's body,
an animal, an insect, a growing plant
or a manufacturing process—it can be
traced wherever it coes to learn what
happens to it and how it behaves

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