Business: THE NUCLEAR PIONEERS

The U.S. atomics industry and its works are as broad in scope as the uses of the atom. Among the leading companies:

Westinghouse Electric (1957 sales: $2,009,043,776) does more overall reactor work than any other company. It built the first large U.S. power reactor for the Government at Shippingport, Pa. in 1957, is constructing, with $5,000,000 in AEC help, the $57 million Yankee power reactor at Rowe, Mass, for a group of New England utilities. Westinghouse built the reactor for the first atomic sub, Nautilus, is now working on 24 reactors for atomic subs and ten for atomic ships. Westinghouse and Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. recently backed out of a $108 million reactor project because they found the project too technically complicated.

Du Pont (1957 sales: $1,999,667,751) built and operates the huge Savannah River H-bomb plant near Aiken, S.C. for the AEC on a $1.8 billion contract, produces there the "heavy water" that will be sold to the world as part of the atoms-for-peace plan.

North American Aviation (1957 sales: $1,243,767,483) built a 6,000-kw. power reactor for the AEC at Santa Susanna, Calif., is working on two more AEC reactors in Nebraska and Ohio, studying a sodium-cooled thorium breeder reactor for 15 southwest utilities. It has an Air Force contract for study of nuclear rocket engines, has built small research reactors for German, Danish and Japanese groups, is building two more in Italy and Germany.

Babcock & Wilcox (1957 sales: $366,081,000) is constructing the reactor and propulsion system for the first nuclear-powered merchant ship, the Savannah, due to be completed next year, is building the nuclear reactor for Consolidated Edison's huge 163,000-kw. power plant at Indian Point, N.Y. It is experimenting with gas coolants and liquid metal fuel reactors for the AEC, selling its research reactors at home and abroad.

Combustion Engineering (1957 sales: $286,092,000) is involved in some $50 million worth of atomic work from submarine reactors to reactor vessels for large power plants.

It will operate the boiling-water reactor built by the Argonne National Laboratory in Idaho, expects to get added strength by acquiring General Nuclear Engineering Corp., for which it is now concluding negotiations.

Union Carbide (1957 sales: $1,395,033,000) operates the Oak Ridge (Tenn.) atomic installation for the Government on a $1.7 million main contract, produces enriched atomic fuel at both the Oak Ridge and Paducah (Ky.) gaseous diffusion plants.

American Machine & Foundry (1957 sales: $261,754,000) has completed a $36 million job for the Navy to develop the first underwater nuclear depth charge, has 16 research reactor projects under way in twelve countries, including the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

Nuclear Development Corp. of America (1957 sales: $3,900,000) is the oldest (since 1948) and largest firm exclusively in atomic energy, has the distinction of having made money each year. It is working on a sodium heavy water reactor for a power plant in Anchorage, Alaska, designing and developing Europe's largest nuclear reactor in Belgium.