Evening star., 1951-03-26
Peron on the Atom

Although many spectacular and revolution
ary things are possible in the largely unexplored
world OF nuclear science, there is good reason
for skeptical attitude toward President Perons
statement on how "the new Argentina" has dis
covered an astonishing new way to harness the
atom-without uranium and through processes
much cheaper and much simpler than those
employed by the United States, the Soviet Union
and other countries active in the field.
To begin with, the whole business is sus-
pect because Of its timing. At any rate,
whether by coincidence or deliberate intent it
has come as a kind of eectrifying prelude to
today's opening of the 21-nation inter- American
conference here in Washington That fact sug-
gests, rightly or wrongly, that General Perons
bombshell may have been designed primarily to
shore up his prestige at moment when lot
OF people in this hemisphere have begun to
take decidedly dim view of his developing
dictatorship. In addition, his statement is
studded here and there with phrases forid and
bombastic enough to make one wonder whether
he has not spoken more as politician than as a
man announcing an accomplished scientific fact.
Moreover, wholly apart from its flavor of
political propaganda, the Peron announcement
must be taken with good deal of salt because
1t claims something that most scientists seem
to regard as highly improbable, il not impossible
Thus, in extremely generalized and vague Ian
guage, 1t gives the impression that Argentine
experts have found q cheap and abundant raw
material with which they can produce atomic
energy in "thermonuclear reactions" which, II
uncontrolled, would cause catastrophe ex-
plosions" comparable to that Of the still -theo-
retical hydrogen weapon. In other words it
gives the impression that Argentina, in rela-
lively small experimental plant, has outstripped
the United States and all other nations, not
only in figuring out an easy way to harness the
atoms power without uranium but also in NOV
ing ahead to a position where 1t could, If 1t
wished, produce something like the H-bomb.
According to our own scientists, however, the
"thermonuclear reactions Of an H-bomb can
not be brought about without the tremendous
temperatures generated by the trigger" or de-
tonating explosion of an A-bomb, and an
A-bomb, in the present stage of atomic develop
ment cannot be made without uranium. Fur
ther, despite General Peron's claim, there ap-
pears to be unanimous agreement in this country
and elsewhere, that the "thermonuclear reac-
tions" of hydrogen blast cannot be controlled
for useful power and are good for nothing but
destruction. Hence, it seems doubtful in the
extreme that Argentina has succeeded in doing
thing which right now, and for the foreseeable
future, is generally regarded as being practically
impossible.
Nevertheless, even though the Peron state
ment thus merits great measure of skepticism,
the fact remains, pointed out in the celebrated
Smyth report on our wartime A-bomb project,
that it is at least theoretically conceivable to
produce nuclear energy through far easier
processes than at present-and not merely
with uranium but with materials as common as
iron. Accordingly, grossly exaggerated as the
Argentine claim may be, we cannot dismiss the
possibility inherent in It, If it ever is realized,
the world will be fully capable of committing
suicide. Clearly, as time wears on, the more
imperative becomes mankinds need for the
strictest kind OF international atomic control.