Evening star., 1955-07-10
BY EARL h. vOsS.

Among other ehects Of ohe
Geneva atoms-for-peace conference
next August will be its emphasis on
the importance Of West European
science to world progress.
Great Britain. for instance, will
go to Geneva expecting to be the
first nation in the world to operate
a nuclear power station on an in
dustrial scale, that is with an out
put of $4,000 kilowatts or more.
British scientists did it without
American help, after Congress cut
off Anglo-American cooperation in
the atomic field. Construction Of
the British station started in 1858,
at Calder Hall in Cumberland. The
plant should 60 into operation early
in 1856, and may even get going by
next Christmas according to late
reports.
The United States first industrial
power plant using nuclear energy.
now being built by Westinghouse
near Pittsburgh, was started
whole year after the Calder Hall
Job. It will produce 10000 kilowatts
and is not expected to start opera
ton before 1857.
The Soviet Union claimed year
ago to have the first nuclear power
station operating an industry. but
its capacity was only 5000 kilo-
watts. That amount of power would
be a normal supply for Q commun-
ity of 5000 to $500 in the United
states. Recently Power Stations
Minister Georgi Malenkov an
nounced that several plants OF
$4,000 to 100000 XIV capacity would
be put into service in the near
future"
In Perspective
Among non-Soviet nations. the
United States, Of course, has IN
vested by far the greatest amount
in atomic development. In round
numbers, America has spent around
$40 billion, Britain about 81 bill
lion. France about 500 million, and
other European countries (the
Soviet bloc excepted) about $40
million.
Only Britain and the United
States, among those mentioned,
are now spending money on atomic
weapons. France may. in q few
years. The other European coun-
tries have no plans for entering the
field.
Emphasis in Europe has been on
nuclear power development, because
Europe is power hungry. Power
costs are so high in Europe that
even primitive atomic power plants
will be able to compete with con-
ventional producers. (This is not
true in the United States. Con-
ventional power is so cheap here
it will be several years before nu-
clear plants can sell power at COM
petitive prices.)
European scientists have con-
centrated on using natural uranium
reactors in their power plants.
These are easier on the budget than
reactors using uranium-235. The
latter require expensive gaseous
diffusion plants to separate ura-
nium-235 from the more plentiful
uranium
Europe got of to slow start in
the nuclear power field after World
War II. There were two main
reasons. Most nations lacked in
formation. And many had exag-
gerated ideas of how much it would
cost to develop atomic programs.
In 1948 however. individual
European scientists concluded that
their countries could get into the
field without impoverishing their
governments. Sweden and Norway
led the way. BY now all Western
oriented countries except Denmark,
Greece and Turkey have operat-
ing atomic organizations.
Norway is the only European
country without an immediate in
teresJ in nuclear power. She has
lots of cheap hydroelectric power
cascading down her mountainsides.
But she is intensely interested in
nuclear power for ships.
Joint Projects
To amass the money and the
talent necessary to get their atomic
program started, IL European ma
tions pooled their resources to enter
the basic research field. Under
UNESCO prodding, the "Conseil
European pour la Recherche Nu-
cleaire" Germ; European NucleuT
Research Council. Through it the
IL member countries could share
the costs of expensive particle ac-
celerators, which are the key in
struments in basic atomic research,
Contributions to Germ are based
on national income. Member
nations are Belgium, Denmark,
France, the German Federal Re-
public, Greece. Italy, the Neither
lands. Norway, Sweden. Switzerland,
the United Kingdom and Yugo-
slavia.
GERM Is now building the worlds
largest accelerator. Q proton wn-