NUCLEAR POWER FOR PEACEFUL PURPOSES — SMYTH 201 



we will build a reactor generating about 20,000 kilowatts of heat but 

 without any electric generating plant attached. 



In addition to these new proposals, we shall continue several other 

 programs already under way. These include the so-called inter- 

 mediate submarine reactor now under construction at West Milton, 

 N. Y., near Schenectady, and the development of a reactor to propel 

 aircraft. Though the aims of both of these projects are special, they 

 will undoubtedly contribute to the general technology. 



COSTS 



It is evident that we can build powerplants which will convert the 

 energy released in nuclear fission into electrical energy to be fed into 

 transmission lines. The question that has not been answered and 

 may not be conclusively answered even by the program I have out- 

 lined is whether this power can be produced cheaply enough to be of 

 general use. The Atomic Energy Commission believes that it can be 

 done and this is the opinion also of the several j)rivate industrial groups 

 that have been studying the problem for several years at the invitation 

 of the Commission. At present, the power delivered by the submarine 

 reactor at our Idaho plant costs about ten times as much as it would 

 if we bought it from the Idaho Power Comp)any. From this figure 

 you can see that it will require all the ingenuity of our staff, our con- 

 tractors, and private industry working together to get costs down, 

 but it is reasonable to assume that eventually this will be done. 



INDUSTRIAL PARTICIPATION 



These private industrial groups I have mentioned are interested in 

 more than just cost studies. They have assigned able members of 

 their staffs to design studies of nuclear powerplants and in some cases 

 are doing considerable amounts of research at their own expense. 

 But it is a mistake to think that private industry can or will pick up 

 the burden of development of nuclear powerplants in the present 

 state of the art. It is a field in which knowledge and competence are 

 still largely confined to government laboratories and in which the 

 financial risks are still too great for private industry to carry alone. 



The Commission hopes for greater and greater participation by in- 

 dustry both teclmically and financially and for a gradual transfer of 

 the nuclear power part of the Commission's responsibilities to private 

 enterprise. The many problems of such a transfer are too numerous 

 for discussion here. Personally, I feel they are just about as difficult 

 as the technical problems of getting cheap nuclear power. Time, 

 money, and thought will be needed for both sets of problems. I be- 

 lieve they can be solved. 



