Power Compromise

The AEC and Congress have long been at odds over how far and how fast the Government should go in pushing atomic power. The AEC felt that the U.S. should go slow, wait for private enterprise to take the initiative in building commercial plants. Many Congressmen felt that the Government had to take the lead, offer fat subsidies to get large-scale commercial atomic power going now. Last week a special committee of businessmen and engineers appointed by new AEC Chairman John A. McCone to advise him suggested a solution. The Government would pay a major part of the costs of constructing prototype plants up to 80,000 kw. Whenever the AEC thought experience justified building a 200,000-to-5000,000-kw. plant of a particular type, it would tell industry so. Thereafter, industry normally would be expected to do the job alone. If no company came forward and the AEC was still convinced that the plant would hasten low-cost atomic power, the Government could pay a substantial part of the cost.

The compromise did not go all the way in accepting the argument of Democratic Senator Clinton P. Anderson, chairman of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, and others that many of the cost problems in building commercial atomic reactors are directly due to inherent bigness. Anderson contends that the Government must pay a big part of the cost in the transition from pilot models to full-scale plants because private industry cannot afford the huge costs in researching and developing the different techniques and materials involved. Against this view, the report argues that the Government gets more for its money if it builds two or three generations of prototype models, learning from each stage. But the report offered a back-door approach to meeting Anderson's objection: the Government would "substantially" increase its applied research expenditures on civilian nuclear power, thus taking over more of the lab and engineering work from industry.

For its reactor program, the committee estimates that an annual expenditure of $200 million to $225 million would be required, with the Government's share around $150 million to $200 million, the rest coming from industry. Against this, the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy had proposed $250 million to $275 million. The difference could be partly met by switching money already in the AEC budget. But Washington guessed that if AEC Chairman McCone vigorously pursues the advice he solicited, he will have to fight with the Budget Bureau for more civilian reactor funds.

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