184 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1948 
TYPE OF FACILITY POSSIBLE INTER-CONNECTIONS PRODUCTS 
MINE 7 ETA 
ths: | SOURCE MATERIALS 
URANIUM @ THORIUM 
METAL REFINING AND 
FABRICATION 
POSSIBLE ISOTOPE 
iF FUEL I ENRICHED —4——_ | On THORIUM 
HEAT TURBO- 
Wy sc ROOTEHANSER TURBINE cena OS 
PRIMARY PILE =. |\— aa POWER 
PARTLY 
CHEMICAL SEPARATION 
AND 
METAL FABRICATION 
YL) 
SECONDARY PILE Yu 
MATERIAL 
AND NEW FUEL 
DENATURED FUEL 
|; a 
RECHARGE 
SOURCE 
MATERIALS 
SOME USEFUL 
RADIO ISOTOPES 
ST FISSION PRODUCT 
a WASTE FISSION 
PRODUCTS 
HEAT TURBO- 
EXCHANGER TURBINE GENERATOR 
HEAT, go 
POWER 
RADIO ISOTOPES 
FOR CHEMISTRY, 
BIOLOGY AND MEDI- 
CINE 
FicurEe 3.—Atomic power facilities. 
product and its production and sale at 
competitive rates simply replaces ex- 
pense for cooling otherwise required 
by such installations and pays for 
some, perhaps all, of the cost of the 
plant and its operation. 
APPLICATIONS OF ATOMIC POWER PLANTS 
There has been much speculation, 
some of it unwarranted, as to possible 
uses of atomic power. 
The heavy protective shielding re- 
quired on any such plant precludes its 
use where extremely light weight is 
required. The shield would crush an 
automobile or a truck. Atomic power 
on inhabited aircraft is extremely 
unlikely, at least for a long time. 
It ultimately may prove possible to 
design an atomic plant for a locomo- 
tive, although it does not look feasible 
at present. 
Atomic piants for naval and large 
commercial ocean vessels appear defi- 
nitely possible, and also attractive 
from the standpoint of making refuel- 
ing extremely infrequent. This well 
may be the first real commercial 
application. 
Atomic power plants for land use 
certainly are feasible technically, and 
probably will be attractive first where 
fuel is scarce and high in cost. 
Thus far this article has been devoted 
to a discussion of power as distinct 
from industrial uses and benefits of 
other aspects of atomic energy, tracer 
chemistry, radiation chemistry, and so 
forth. ‘These are reviewed more brief- 
ly in the following. Such emphasis 
should not be construed as an opinion 
that power is any more important to 
industry. Other benefits may prove 
more important in the generations 
yet to come; current estimations of the 
time that must elapse before any 
authoritative evaluations can be made 
range all the way from 10 to 40 years. 
Radioactivity and Radiation 
In discussing the following phases, 
the authors have drawn much upon 
published material (2—4), particularly 
the predictions of future possibilities 
in these fields by such authorities as 
Doctors Arthur H. Compton, Zay 
Jeffries, James Franck, and Milton 
Burton. 
