Happy Ending

Twelve hundred atomic scientists tucked away their well-filled notebooks, exchanged goodbyes and headed home from Geneva's Palace of Nations. After 13 veil-lifting days of give and take, the first International Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy (TIME, Aug. 22) was over. The talk had shed new light on every facet of peacetime atomics, from prospecting for ore to H-power. The last major debate: the biological hazards involved in nonmilitary use of the atom.

The "producers" of radioactivity (reactor men and weapons makers) maintained that, with proper precautions, there was little to worry about. But from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's huge Hanford plutonium plant near the Columbia River in Washington, came a plain-spoken report of how even the tightest precautions have some leaks. Radioactive wastes from Hanford, e.g., phosphorous, got into the river in water that had been used to cool the Hanford reactors. The waste was first absorbed by diatoms, tiny simple-celled plants, then by the larvae of insects. Fish that ate the larvae registered a radiophosphorous concentration 100,000 times the normal amount.

Even young birds, particularly swallows, showed radioactive concentrations 500,000 times greater than normal after feeding on diatom-eating insects. Some animals, e.g., jack rabbits, were also affected after eating grass that had been irradiated, probably by particles escaping from Hanford's chimneys. None of the present radiation is dangerous, thanks to AEC precautions, but if the radioactive material in the Columbia were allowed to reach the maximum level considered safe for ordinary drinking water, fish from the river would soon be unfit for food.

To radiation "consumers" (geneticists and physicians), the possible hazards of the atomic age were of grave concern. Even the most cheerful geneticists admitted that no certain "safe threshold" of radioactivity has yet been determined. Any increase in world radioactivity may upset the delicate balance in the number of damaging mutations that the human race can stand and cripple future generations. Said the AEC's John C. Bugher: "We are running a risk, but all life is a risk."

On its positive side, Geneva loaded the scientists with new ideas. Said one U.S. official: "You can't rub that many good brains together without getting sparks." Among the many sparks:

NEW REACTORS. British, Dutch and U.S. scientists spelled out almost to "do-it-yourself" simplicity the operations of their most advanced reactor designs. Chief among them: AEC's Brookhaven liquid-metal fuel reactor, powered by circulating molten solution of uranium in bismuth, in a "blanket" of thorium-bismuth compound (Th₃Bi₅). The thorium breeds U-233, which is recycled as fuel, making fuel costs "negligible."

EXTRACTING FUEL. New techniques, for extracting thorium and uranium from ordinary granite were revealed by U.S. scientists. One ton of granite would yield uranium and thorium with the energy equivalent of ten to 15 tons of coal.

NEW PLANT STRAINS. Sweden's Ake Gustafsson reported that seeds exposed to atomic radiation, notably barley, new wheat, peas, flax, tomatoes, had produced new, hardier strains by mutation. In the future, said Gustafsson, new breeds of plants can be developed to produce healthy crops almost anywhere in the world.

As the wealth of information poured out, visiting U.S. Senator Clinton P. Anderson, chairman of Congress' Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, observed: "Many things are not quite as secret as we thought." One prime example: for ten years, the U.S., Britain and Russia had independently (and secretly) measured the rate of neutron absorption by reactor fuels (U-235, U-233, plutonium); plotted on a graph at Geneva, each country's data produced precisely the same answer.

The U.S., which gave out the most information, learned much at Geneva, especially about the Russians, who showed up as strong on theory, weaker on practical application. Calling for "regular" meetings in the future, the Russians announced they would supply their allies with the tools of peacetime atomics, including a 6,500 kw. reactor for Red China. The conference chairman, India's Homi Bhabha, was happiest about the lack of politics interfering with science. "There should be another conference," he said. "But let's wait three years. This will give time for some more really interesting information to accumulate."

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