Evening star., 1940-06-01
Of Sturs, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henri.

By Thomas r. Henry.
In the thermal diffusion process for
extracting the priceless ctino-uranium,
possible source Of atomic power, only .
large battery Of tubes would prove Of
practical value
An apparatus. concerning which no
details are being made public, now is
set up on the campus Of Johns Hopkins
University In Baltimore.
After an appreciable period-it Is be-
lieved and this is upheld by experiments
with other isotopes-the gas In the top
bulb Of the apparatus will be slightly
richer In actino-uranium than that In
the rest Of the tube. This can then be
drawn of into another thermal diffusion
tube. The resulting product should be q
trifie richer still. This can be continued,
1t is believed. through battery Of tubes
until gas finally results in which the
ratio OF the actino- uranium atoms to the
uranium atoms will be about 3 to l. This
would be pure enough for practical pur-
poses
American physicists who have inves-
tigated the problem say consistently that
uranium power is something for the
next war not this one"
They also point out that the neces-
sary chain reaction"-by which the ex-
plosion Of one atom would send out neu-
irons which would explode neighboring
atoms-never has been actually demon
strated, although there is little question
but that it will work.
Once the vast storehouse Of atomic
energy, the force which holds creation
together has been tapped means can be
found for harnessing it, and probably in
short order, the physicists agree
Meanwhile, they insist, gold or plati-
mum lined thermal diffusion tubes offer
the only apparently practical means Of
large scale separation. At the best this
would be incredibly expensive. The only
country In the world with enough gold
for the purpose is the United States.
Germany does not have enough to con-
struct such superdistillery.
The gold itself would remain unin-
jured and undiminished when used in
this way. Providing the experiments
work, the resulting actino- uranium would
be so infinitely more valuable than gold
that comparisons would be fantastic.
Uranium containing deposits are scat
tered widely over the United States, but
the richest thus far found in the world
are in Northern Canada. So rich are
these that since they have been worked
the price of radium. one Of the products
OF uranium breakdown, has been cut
more than in half. The next richest de-
posts known are in the Belgian Congo,
which for time held practically mo-
nopoly on radium production.
Hitherto all information regarding
uranium fissure has been public prop
erty Every advance during the brief
IS months since the process was first re-
vealed has been published freely in tech
nical journals or discussed at meetings
OF scientific societies. Now for the first
time, and in spite of the honest skepti-
cism OF American physicists over any
practical use in the immediate future, a
veil OF secrecy has been thrown over the
whole field
DR.. H. D. Fowler, the Johns Hopkins
chemist, was one of the pioneers Of
uranium-hssion work in this country.
He succeeded within few weeks after
the German discovery was first an
nounced in splitting atoms of thorium,
a radioactive element closely related to
uranium. This is line hardly worth
following, he says, because there is al
most no theoretical possibility Of setting
up chain reaction in this element. Ap-
parently it emits no neutrons when it
splits.
AS to uranium hexifuoride, he said:
Its nasty stuff to make and nasty stuff
to handle, but no worse than organic
chemists are working with every day."
Meanwhile, physicists warn, the neces-
sary policy of secrecy now thrown
around all uranium fssion work, both
In the United States and Europe, is
likely to give rise to terrifying rumors
for which there will be no basis, so far
as can be determined from anything now
known. Various secret processes" are
being studied. They would not be secret
at any other time and are concerned only
with minor technical details A great
many such investigations must be piled
up, so far as present knowledge is con-
cerned, before atomic power will become
a reality
Even if th~ dctino- uranium separation
should fail with the new apparatus, it
was explained at Johns Hopkins, the
thermal diffusion apparatus can be used
for fundamental research on the separa-