ATOMIC ENERGY: Toward Cheap Power

The U.S. this week took another step down the road toward generating electricity from atomic fuels at a cost competitive with hydroelectric power or coal power. The Argonne National Laboratory at Lemont, Ill. announced its experimental boiling water reactor, put in operation a year ago and originally designed for an output of 20,000 kw. of heat had been safely operated at a level of 50,000 kw., cutting the estimated cost of electricity per kw-h from 5.2¢ to 3.2¢. while that price is still too high to be of commercial use, Argonne estimates that four boiling water reactors like the one at Argonne could be hooked up to a power station, turn out power at 1.2¢ per kw-h near the .8¢-.9¢ that would make it competitive with present commercial electricitv