Evening star., 1952-08-17
Our Atomic BuiId-Up

Ever since September, 1949, when the Presi-
dent announced that the Soviet Union had
succeeded in setting of its first atomic explosion,
our country has been pressing forward with a
vast expansion of its nuclear-knergy facilities in
an effort to remain supreme In the field Of
A-weapons. The latest move to that end Is the
decision to build a great new gaseous diffusion
plant for the production of uranium 235 In
Southern Ohio.
Although parts of it may be put into produc-
ton by 1854, about four years will be required to
complete this plant. That is one measure of its
size and Importance. Another is that it will
cost, according to present estimates, approx
mately $12 billion And yet another Is that 1t
will need 18 million kilowatts of power to operate
at full capacity. In that respect as indicated by
the Atomic Energy Commission, it will rank with
the Nations biggest facilities for the output Of
pure nuclear fuel-the explosive heart of
A-weapons.
All told, with the Ohio project, the American
investment in such faciities-which are distinct
from numerous other great atomic enterprises
like those at Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Arco.
Idaho-adds up to bit more than $6 billion
The U-235 plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the
plutonium plant at Hanford, Washington, both
of which have undergone considerable expansion
since their erection during the Second World
War, have involved building costs, respectively,
of about $13 billion and $12 billion. The remain
der of the Sc billion the outays to be spent
on constructing the plants that have been blue
printed and ordered since the Presidents grim
announcement in 1949.
OF these new plants, the one that Is to go up
in Ohio probably will not begin to take shape
for some months to come, but work is well
advanced on the Others They are the U-235
plant being built at Paducah, Kentucky, at
cost of 5000 million and the giant facilities now
rising in West-Central South Carolina close by
the Savannah River. The latter project which
involves construction outlay in excess Of $1A
billion, is designed to produce variety OF atomic
materials, and there is good reason to believe
that it may play role Of the most portentous
kind in making possible the achievement-f that
is the right word-of the indescribably deadly
hydrogen bomb. ....
AS Chairman Gordon Dean Of the Acc has
explained, all this expansion is taking place In
order to build up our arsenal Of A-weapons land
perhaps H-weapons as welD to the degree OF
strength that our Defense Department regards
as absolutely essential to the Nations security
With the expansion, this strength can be attained
four or five years earlier than would be possible
II we relied merely on the facilities erected
during the Second World War-a fact that amply
tustifies the huge expenditures now being made
for much greater production Of the explosive
fashionable materials.
This effort. Of course, would not be necessary
If the men Of the Kremlin would cooperate In
establishing genuinely effective system of world
atomic control Because of their threatful nay
saying position, however, we have no choice but
to do everything we can to keep well ahead IN
the race-by far the deadliest in history. The
prospect is bleak one. The only comfort to be
derived from it is that all the nuclear fuel being
produced now for destruction can be an asset
of incalculable value to the whole of mankind II
war can somehow be avoided and the Soviet
Union eventually persuaded to join in organizing
q decent and enduring peace.