An Atomic Navy?

The Navy has hopes of harnessing atomic power for ship propulsion. Announcement of the signing of a $103,000 contract--to study the possibilities at St. Louis' Washington University--battened down the Navy's huge atomic-energy research program.

At Washington University last week, Chancellor Arthur H. Compton assigned some 40 scientists to basic nuclear studies and the many unsolved engineering problems involved in making atomic engines Said Compton: "A battleship with an atomic power unit would use the unit to propel the ship, and at the same time might produce materials from which atomic bombs could be made."

Floating Power Pile. A teacup of water has enough nuclear power, potentially to drive a large steamship across the Atlantic Ocean. But physicists who have studied the problem believe that an atomic engine will be no teacup affair; the only method they have found to date for releasing nuclear energy is the fission of considerable quantities of a heavy element like uranium.

Assuming that the power source is uranium or plutonium, such an engine would require: 1) a chain-reacting pile of several tons (which would provide energy in the form of heat); 2) boilers and other equipment for converting the pile's heat into steam; 3) massive shields to protect crews from the pile's deadly radiation; 4) a conventional turbine.

It would also need equipment for: 1) removing the pile's "ash" (fission products), which slows down the chain reaction and eventually stops it altogether; 2) periodic repurifying of the uranium in the pile; 3) making repairs by remote control in case the battleship's engine broke down.

Still, a naval atomic engine would have great advantages. A pound of pure natural uranium (U-238) in a pile produces 20-400 kilowatt-hours of usable energy. An atomic-powered ship could cruise almost indefinitely without refueling, could dispense with oil storage tanks and its great weight of fuel. Engineers guesstimate that uranium as fuel would be no more costly than oil or coal.

The Navy is not putting all its money on uranium. A large part of it, in the 30 universities which have been assigned the problem, will go into fundamental studies of the interaction of protons, neutrons and electrons. The Navy hopes they will uncover better ways of releasing nuclear energy.

Last week also brought news of a new $5,000,000-a-year Army project. The Manhattan District's new atomic laboratory in the New York metropolitan area (TIME, July 8) got a charter as Associated Universities. Inc. Participants: Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, M.I.T., Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Yale, Rochester, Pennsylvania.

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