Document Raa0Zjmk7QaGv65BNNO8ewv17

MAY 1948 ESTABLISH* IN 1882 THE ATOM JOB--IS IT BEING DONE? Switchboard in Conlrol Room of Aluminum Co. of Canada's Shipshsw Powerhouse. Note how signal lights and Mieromax Recorders ate centralised in operator's triangle of vision, with all switches for the Station's hydro-generators at (he sides. SHIPSHAW OPERATOR Watches Generators via Micromax Recorders The instruments in' Shipshaw Powerhouse's Operating Room are noteworthy for the quick, compact way in which they enable the genera tion operator to watch the Station's three interrelated conditions of frequency, load and generator temperature. Use Round-Chart Mieromax Recorder, just below the clock it the left, shows the frequency. Beside the Round-Chart Frequency Recorder is a Mieromax StripChart Load Recorder. Th/s instrument totalises the mcgtwttl output of Shipthaw's twelve units. Below the Frequency and Load Recorders ace two Mictomax sixpoint Generator Temperature Recorders; only the top halves art visible tn the photograph. Each shows the stator temperatures In 6 generators, and warns if the ultimate load-limit is reached, regardless of power factor, ambient temperature ot any other contributing factor. Thus the four Recorders tell the story of what the twelve turbo generators are doing, and tell it in the way best calculated to help the operator perform his twin duties of carrying the station load and protect ing the machines. Leeds it Northrup Co., 4910 Stenton Ave., Phila delphia 44, Pa. m Any of all of these UN PuNgS tiom will be sent on lequai^j if you hive a problem to 1 ^ an L&N Recorder or Conoril** 6_ be applied, we suggest you an LAN engineer for specific mendaUon. _MEASURlNO tNSTRUMENTs TELEMETERS AUTOMATIC CONTROLS HEAT-TREATING LEEDS & NORTHRUP CQ, Jti Ad N-I6I(?) "Tt Stottananr lull"J*"1. JVfiltS' opanj, Ik, Pebllrolli* aHlra. ...... J second class A*lw; *i t addiau. an wxmfdratlM SuSicriptlmi rotas--U. S. ad V- \ 'ZZAi. 7---- ............. r -- --.I..... vOIMltrlot, ItO !( MI Mfr, fit N* *** "41 a ladlmia pvuslw mt ttmpmrr mmtttn m aU MburiHlon asdan. -Odat, the Atomic Energy Commission carries ^one of (his country'* top responsibilities. It is nJy natural that we, as engineers and citizens, j&ojd want to know bow well that responsibility being discharged. Of necessity, much o! AEC's work is secret. 'a information that con be released is usually ing talent. Under today's conditions, AEC must give top priority to military projects,-go slow on others that would compete for men and materials. 2. There hat been no faltering in the No. 1 job of running war-built 'plants' to maintain the bomb production achieved by Manhattan District. At Oak Ridge, efficiency in separation of fissionable fragmentary and difficult for even the expert to uranium has been boosted. Production of plu f&luate. In such an atmosphere, criticism is oil tonium at Hanford has been mointained In the face jo easy. Yet unwarranted criticism can be dam- of great technical obstacles. Bomb manufacture at in its effects on the Commission and the Los Alamos has been headed from a laboratory MiMihoo Act under which it operates. To secure the facts needed to assess this eituo- lion, Powbb,-through Its Washington bureau, boa reexamined the entire atomic-energy program, iurtlog from a background of close coverage of the toward a factory operation. 3. No such unqualified endorsement can yet be given to the equally important program for advanc ing our knowledge of fusion processes and prod. ucts, but wo seem to be on the way. Six months ago, jftfject since 1940. We didn't ask for, and didn't the forward-thrusting phase of ototn work was at t, any secret Information. We did talk to govern*, dead bottom, stagnating. Then AEC got a grip on meat officials, both in and out of AEC, and to indus its huge job end things began to move.' Today the trial leaders, those involved in the atom program situation is. still spotty, but visibly on the mend d those who have chosen not to be involved. everywhere. Every major atom plant and lab has been visited, Able regional administrators with a large meas /the report beginning on the following poge pro- ure of autonomy are pushing the major projects Kfits the results of this survey in concise form. It .along. The top-priority new plutonium plant at represents, we believe, as complete and clear a pic- Hanford is well under way. In the radically re lave as is available to an outsider. - On the facts, organised reactor program, designers stand ready* these conclusions about the. atomic program under to-go on three or foar new piles. Although weapon- ffie McMahon Act seem justified: coring ot Loe Alamos still has a long way to go, L AEC Is, j necessity, pushing first an ormo* agreement has been reached on a research plan vwnt program, and results muss ha judged on.this and the laboratory Is squaring away to under fob. One cause for criticism bos been the apparent take it. 4)ttwness in developing peacetime applications, par 4. There appears to bo no need, at this time, to ticularly power generation. The key /act here is change the McMahon Act. When it becomes pos no one In the U. S. needs atomic .power very sible to see the pattern that peacetime commercial ^ly.' In fuel-hungry Europe, and even more fa application of the otom will follow, we will almost $ritin, the picture Is different. Thus the first certainly want to reconsider the entire question of Poetical atomic power plant may well appear out- the ''socialised" atom. With military applications *yfe (he U. S. now in the fore, government monopoly is natural. ^Even with its tremendous' budget, AEC must Under the McMahon Act, AEC is getting its job ,r*fuliy ration materials and, especially, engineer- done. Right now that's the prime consideration. * May 1946 61