ATOMIC POWER: A Job for Free Enterprise

ATOMIC POWER A Job for Free Enterprise IN most predictions, commercial atomic power is usually about "ten years away." Businessmen—and many scientists—feel that commercial atomic power will always be "ten years away" unless some basic changes are made in U.S. policy. Under present law, only the Government can own uranium and plutonium. Since the Government's primary interest in atomic energy is military, it has done little to develop commercial uses. While there is a Government monopoly, private enterprise has no opportunity and no incentive to put its competitive genius to work to develop commercial power. Although President Eisenhower, the Atomic Energy Commission and businessmen all agree that the doors should now be opened to private enterprise, Congress has been in no hurry to amend the laws to make this possible.

At the start of the atomic age, the nation's security required that the Government have absolute control over the program. But many of the atomic secrets are secrets no longer: the Communists have long since learned them. In fact, too much secrecy is now hampering atomic development by preventing the free interchange of ideas.

To date, AEC has given private industry merely a peek. AEC information has been made available to five "study teams" from ten corporations so that they can judge the possibilities of commercial atomic power. But the companies can only look, not act. Even these companies have no incentive to explore the commercial possibilities. All their discoveries and patentable processes must be turned over to the U.S. Thus, though the Government has spent $8.6 billion in its atomic program, industry has spent only a few millions. Businessmen and AEC agree that the Atomic Energy Act should be amended thus: tj Private companies should be permitted to own the fissionable materials needed to run their own reactors. CJ Patents on nuclear discoveries made by companies with their own money should go to the private companies. CJ Security restrictions should be relaxed to enable a freer flow of information between corporations to cut down duplications and wasted effort.

These recommendations have already brought rumblings of opposition on the ground that such a plan would be a "giant giveaway" of all the secrets of the atom. Actually it would be nothing of the sort, since the available information on commercial applications of the atom is extremely limited. In fact, a liberalization of the Atomic Energy Act would be a "give away" only of corporate funds; it would merely give the corporations an opportunity to gamble hundreds of millions in a field where there is still no guarantee of any return.

For most corporations, the cost of building a full-scale atomic power station will be prohibitively high—anywhere from $50 million to $100 million. Even groups of companies, working together, may need Government aid, not only in financing the reactor but in the form of a purchase contract for all the plutonium produced. At present, plutonium is the end product of a reactor, and the byproduct is heat. In commercial use, plutonium would be the byproduct, and heat from reactors to drive turbines to make the electricity would be the end product.