First Nuclear Power

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, slim in a royal blue coat and ermine-trimmed hat, stood under a white nylon canopy in gale-swept northern England. "All of us here," she said in her girlish voice, "know we are present at the making of history . . . It is with pride that I open Calder Hall, Britain's first atomic power station." She pulled a small lever, and unseen controLs shifted in the brightly colored, futuristic structures behind the nylon canopy. The hand of a clocklike dial turned, measuring the flow of atom-born electricity into Britain's power lines.

The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. have experimental plants that produce small amounts of nuclear electricity, but Britain is the first to achieve atomic power on a serious scale. When in full operation, Calder Hall's two units will generate 92,000 kw. The most advanced nuclear power plant in the U.S.. at Shippingport, Pa., has only the rough, nonnuclear parts of its equipment in place. Paid for chiefly with government money, it is not scheduled for completion until next summer. Many private atomic power plants have been projected with loud publicity, but few, if any, have passed the ceremonial ground-breaking stage. The site of Consolidated Edison Co. of New York's plant at Indian Point on the Hudson, for instance, has not even been cleared of trees.

Britain, short of fuel for her rapidly growing industries, needs atomic power more than the U.S. or Russia. In trying to get it as quickly as possible, British scientists have settled for a comparatively primitive reactor, which uses natural uranium for fuel and is cooled by pressurized carbon dioxide. As they gain experience, Britain's atomic engineers plan to shift to more advanced reactors.

The policy of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission has been to concentrate on small experimental reactors of advanced type while encouraging private industry to undertake the full-scale jobs. Its reasoning: that a reactor which would be economic in Britain, where power is expensive, would not be worth building in the U.S., where power is much cheaper.

Economic or not, Calder Hall is a technical triumph and a boost to British prestige. Said Henry Gethin Davey, in charge of its construction: "Britain has the lead. I don't claim to know what the Russians are doing. I'm basing my opinion on the expressions on their faces when they first came to Calder Hall."

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