Britain Can Make It

Britain passed an atomic milestone last week by announcing the existence of its first home-made plutonium. It was not much: a small amount of greyish solution, now stored in a vault. But it was made from uranium in Britain's own nuclear reactors at Harwell, Berkshire, and separated chemically from the dangerous "hot" uranium. Except for a microscopic quantity that may have been contributed by Canada, it is the first plutonium that British scientists have had to work with.

Soon they should have plenty, probably enough for bomb production. At Sellafield in Cumberland, two big plutonium reactors are now close to completion. They are not tucked away in the middle of a well-patrolled wilderness, like their U.S. predecessors at Hanford, Wash, or the reactors that the Russians are presumably building in Siberia. There are no such great open spaces in the little British Isles. The Sellafield reactors, two 120-ft. concrete cubes protected from snoopers by a high wire fence, can be seen for miles. A large laboratory and processing building is rising beside them. One of the reactors is starting to sprout the 400-ft. stack that will carry away its radioactive gases. Two thousand workers are busy at Sellafield, and many technical men have already been settled near by.

Asked whether this impressive plant will produce the bomb, a spokesman for the Ministry of Supply replied: "No one ever mentions it."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.