FIRST BIG U.S. REACTOR to manufacture more nuclear fuel than it consumes will be built near Monroe, Mich, by Detroit's Power Reactor Development Corp., a group of 26 industrial firms and private utilities. Power generated by the $40.5 million, 100,000-kw., "fast neutron breeder plant" will be distributed by Detroit Edison Co. AEC, which has made only small-scale fast breeders, stipulated that the company must show its plant is safe before getting operating permit.

U.S. SYNTHETIC-RUBBER production by 1958 will almost equal the world's total natural-rubber output. Since private producers bought the bulk of the $700 million industry from the government in April 1955, they have pushed expansion plans that will increase capacity almost 40% to 1,718,200 tons, v. the relatively stable total of 1,800,000 tons from rubber trees.

RESCUE PACT between Studebaker-Packard Corp. and Curtiss-Wright Corp. reached secretly last month (TIME, July 30), was finally made official. In addition to the expected provisions, e.g., the aviation company will run Studebaker-Packard under terms of a management contract, Curtiss-Wright revealed that it is negotiating a contract with West Germany's Daimler-Benz A.G. that will give Studebaker-Packard access to new German engineering developments and may ultimately result in the U.S. auto firm's distributing Daimler-Benz cars and trucks.

NEW TRANSATLANTIC AIR service is planned by Greek Shipowner Aristotle Socrates Onassis, who will pay an estimated $2,500,000 for a 20-year concession to run Greece's ailing airline, T.A.E. (TIME, Aug. 6). Onassis' deal with the Greek government stipulates that T.A.E. start serving South Africa and the Far East by 1958, fly to New York by 1959. Onassis will spend some $10 million for expansion, is trying to buy three DC-7B and two Convair 440 airliners in the U.S.

FARM-TRACTOR SALES this year will trail 1955 volume by at least 20%, the industry believes. Falling sales, because of drought and lagging farm income, will force International Harvester Co. to halt production at two plants for at least five weeks, starting Oct. 1. Farm-equipment slump has also prompted merger talks between Chicago's J. I. Case Co., which has shut down two plants, and money-losing Oliver Corp.

SIR BERNARD DOCKER failed to persuade biggest rally of stockholders in postwar British history to veto his dismissal as $66,000 chairman of Britain's $70 million Birmingham Small Arms Co. (Daimler cars, rifles, motorcycles, etc.). By a vote of 2,687,749 to 683,212, stockholders supported B.S.A. directors, who had fired Sir Bernard (TIME, June 11) for mismanagement and extravagance, e.g., gold-plated Daimlers, $31,000-a-year expense account.

LOBSTER SHORTAGE has sent wholesale prices soaring to $1.25 a pound in New York City, 95-c- in Portland, Me., v. ten-year average of 50-c-. Reason: cold spring delayed until recently the lobsters' shell-shedding period, when lobsters are hard to catch, poor eating when caught.

PACKAGING MERGER between Continental Can Co., second biggest U.S. maker of metal containers (after American Can Co.), and Wheeling, W. Va.'s Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. is under fire from Justice Department, which considers firms competitors. Trustbusters say proposed merger with Hazel-Atlas, second biggest U.S. producer of glass containers, would make Continental Can only manufacturer making containers of all major materials, thus "destroy competition."

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