information about the beneficial uses of atomic energy knows no national boundaries the facts are available today for nuclear energy isn't waiting to help people everywhere in some brave new world of the future the peaceful atom is he now to serve what president eisenhower has termed the needs rather than the fears of mankind nuclear reactors or atomic furnace is like this one provide the product that makes possible practical applications of nuclear energy that product is the radioisotope the atomic tracer a common element tagged with radiation like a sheet with a bell and because they are tagged they can be traced thus giving scientists engineers and doctors worldwide and invaluable tool for research and money saving applications into biology medicine health agriculture and industry in the past eight years the united states has made more than forty seven and a half thousand shipments of radioisotopes to more than two thousand users in this country and almost three thousand shipments to fifty three countries all over the globe at or below cost today atomic radiation controls quality of industrial production reduces industrial costs achieves results hitherto impossible radioisotopes are at work today in the oil industry oil producers have the difficult problem of identifying each different batch of crude oil from an oil field therefore a small amount an atomic tracer is added to the head of each new batch of crude oil at the field pumps force the  radioactive leak tagged oil through pipes to the refinery a radiation cow to detect the radioisotope when it arrives at the head of each new batch of oil and automatically signals refinery headquarters savings half million dollars a and the savings increase as the radioisotope is applied to oil prospecting leak detection and after diving of oil wells what petroleum is only one industry let's turn to motors and see how the tag atom works there piston rings previously made radioactive in a reactor arrive at an engineering laboratory the lead container stops dangerous radiations one of the rings is then attached to the piston of an automobile engine the problem is to measure how the piston ring where is in a test engine when the engine is running the piston ring rubs against other metal causing tiny particles of the ring to wear away due to friction these radioactive particles gradually accumulate in the engine oil by measuring the radioactivity in the oil engineers can tell how well the piston ring resists where practical applications like these are already saving more than one hundred million dollars a year in american industry alone back in the engineering laboratory instruments detect and measure the radioactivity in the oil before radio isotopes were known tests for wear on moving parts had to be made by slow inaccurate methods as it was from the radioactive iron are disintegrating and give bursts of energy a radiation counter picks up these bursts of energy and a scalar count them all the radiation measuring instruments were automatically part of the machine radiation counts on a tape several dozen oil samples can be tested for radioactivity in quick succession automatically each oil sample is positioned and its radioactivity is counted factories now have an invaluable aid in radioactivity in any process involving sheet material paper or metal for instance the thickness of the product was to be measured and controlled with extreme accuracy using radioactivity all this can be done without stopping actual production in the base of the thickness gauging machine is some radioactive material that she product blocks some of the radiation the thicker the material the more particles blo a radiation detector counts the radioactive particles passing through the sheet material the thickness gauge employing radioactivity does instantly measures any variation in thickness without costly interruptions to production industry saves millions of dollars yearly to find dangerous flaws in metals or to test welding an x ray film is attached to the metal radioactive material is taken from a lead storage safe and set in place to take a picture by exposing the x ray film invisible rays penetrate metal literally see into its heart exposing the film since rays pass through flaws more easily than through perfect areas that hidden flaws or faulty welding are pinpointed accurately when the x ray film is developed and a picture made the tiny radioactive source can be spotted in tight or dangerous places where bulky x ray equipment could not be fitted metallurgist engineers and construction workers have a new partner and an expensive partner in the a but they adam is more than a symbol locked in a tiny nucleus has tremendous energy in a piece of uranium the size of a walnut there is as much potential energy as in the amount of coal to fill a one hundred car drain the question is how to get this power how to put this vast energy to work in the power plants to run the turbans of tomorrow there is one way as uranium atoms in the nuclear reactor disintegrate tremendous amount of heat are generated when the heat is transferred to a liquid and the liquid is circulated from the reactor to a boiler room it can produce steam steam drives a generator to produce electricity and we are building such a unit today the nation's first full scale atomic power plant to produce sixty thousand kilowatts of usable electricity enough for a small city it won't produce power economically competitive with coal or oil but it is a major step in that direction a big hope for the future the future is the child of the past and here at the experimental breeder reactor known as the e b r way back in december of one nine hundred fifty one on an isolated desert in idaho was produced the first of us will electrical power from the a these very motion pictures were taken with electrical power from the e b are the first motion picture cameras ever driven by the product of nuclear energy the operator brings the reactor up to power to gain the high heat to be transformed into electricity this reactor is a forerunner of the machine which one day with the help of the international atomic energy agency may provide abundant electrical energy in the power starved areas of the world electrical power from the atom for many years may not be economically competitive in the united states where fuel is plentiful but with technical help from this country economically competitive power reactors probably could be built in a much shorter time in a high power cost areas overseas right now out of these first nuclear machines where not buying power where buying knowledge knowledge that we wish to share the united states will open a reactor training school where scientists and engineers from abroad may learn the working principles of atomic energy i tremendous heat has been generated as the controlled chain reaction reaches a critical point eight is used to create steam a process monitored by a trained technician in the control room steam pressure is watching one of his right a technician in the turbo generator room opens the throttle to let the steam into the turban desert is dark as the control room operator gets ready to shift from standard electrical lines to electricity provided by the atomic reactors when he shuts the switch all facilities inside the buildings such as the machine shop and all lights outside the building will be powered by atomic energy today a bold experiment in future years a reality for homes and factories and schools all over the world of beginning for the future a symbol of of the fields and farms of the world where the atom means more productive farming at lower cost more and better food for a hungry world nuclear research is finding more effective ways of using fertilizers is producing stronger strains of disease resistant crops is fighting plant based and diseases of plants and livestock is studying the mysterious growth process that makes the food we eat and the coal and oil we burn botanists at a national laboratory where crops are grown under controlled radiation conditions gather valuable data on effects of radiation on plants and on future generations of plants this work suggests ways of developing heartier weather and disease resistant strains of food crops yet how nature produces the food we eat is a fascinating mystery for atomic investigation photosynthesis it's called the process plants use in taking energy from sunlight and combining it with air and soil to make the complex coo elements without which no life would survive on this planet investigators use atomic tracers to identify the complicated compounds produced by natural photosynthesis knowledge from this research some day may make it possible for us to manufacture food synthetic gasoline and co in special water cooled greenhouses atomic researchers grow many food and medicinal plants in a radioactive atmosphere from these plants complimentary compounds familiar to medicine and biology the crew will difference is they are radioactive they can be traced from poppies tobacco and other plants from radioactive drugs carbohydrates acids proteins vitamins that are extremely useful today to researchers in medicine biochemistry physiology and agriculture sole atomic bar murs harvest radioactive crops that go to work for the knowledge of man's living environment but the most immediate benefit of atomic research to the farmer is information on the most effective use of fertilizers botanists blamed radioactive tracers with soils in order to study soil and plant nutrition they have already established in value of data showing where and how fertilizers should be placed for maximum update when the plant uses the fertilizers most efficiently what fertilizers are best for various soils and how fertilizer is of from the soil this vital information is saving thousands of tons of fertilizer and millions of dollars every year for the farmers at the same time research produces data that may lead to better stronger strains of plants similar traits or research into giving value of all information on insecticides and making definite headway against prop tests and the diseases of fruit and shade trees radio actions used for food preservation and sterilization also is being investigated but perhaps it's the adams fight against suffering and disease that most strongly captures our imagination controlled radioactivity has placed us twenty five years ahead in the battle against pain and that capturing the adams probing power science has found a powerful new tool to study and defeat sickness and make health they are happier life for the benefit of all mankind the versatility of the atom and medicine is illustrated by the radioactive iodine atomic cocktail which not only speeds diagnosis of thyroid cancer and other thyroid elements but also is effective in treatment of some types of cancer iow dian concentrates in the thyroid and when it is tagged with radioactivity it forces the thyroid to reveal its exact condition and amazing radiation counter actually draws a picture of the thyroid area to speed diagnosis or therapy radioisotope the greatest research tool since the microscope gasser research goes forward all over the world with radio isotopes distributed at only twenty percent of cause but cancer isn't the only disease under atomic investigation brain tumors hyperthyroidism leukemia and other blood diseases hardening of the arteries heart disease virus infections diabetes circulatory diseases and nemean nervous and mental ailments all are slowly giving up some of their intimate secrets to science with the aid of atomic energy we go into new york one of your a hospital to see a powerful aid in the fight against disease the cold world tell us that of the unit which was developed and is being improved by cooperating scientists all over the world with a sharp effective beam of atomic radiation which does not injure a healthy tissue near the cancer the nuclear tool bombards deep seeded tumors with a stream of invisible raise billions of particles of energy similar to x rays but much stronger shrink and cancer cells are destroyed as this one machine gives off more radiation than all the medical radium in the world no cure all final results will take time to evaluate what a big step forward in cancer treatment and a message to the atoms for peace exhibit in rome president eisenhower said that history will one day record as the most far reaching physical accomplishment of the stench rate or even of twenty centuries the discoveries which in recent years unlocked for the use of mankind the bond was energy of the atom the versatile peaceful atom that promotes agriculture fights disease provides valuable radioactive traces for science and industry that is the basis for future economical power for cities homes and factories america as president eisenhower pointed out to the united nations deeply desires to join countries all over the globe in adapting the at home to the arts of peace