68. 



to AC and step the voltage down to that of your power plants. 



Initially we assume building atomic reactors in lieu of coal 

 plants in consumer areas. But if this industry becomes as large as 

 has been discussed there, I think we will have to re-examine the prem- 

 ise. It may be, because of transportation costs of the hot material, 

 that we might eventually decide that it is better to put the power plants 

 in an uninhabited area, and transmit the power to centers of consump- 

 tion by methods that are considered unorthodox at the moment. That 

 is not something that this committee is called upon to solve or to rec- 

 ommend. It is not within the premise of the contemplated power plant, 

 but it is in the background. 



DR. MORTON: I don't have any specific data with regard to 

 transportation of high level wastes, but our experiments with low or 

 intermediate level lead us to think that transportation in a container is 

 going to be uneconomic and not feasible for more than very short dis- 

 tances. Our wastes were 1 to 30 curies per gallon, transported in 500- 

 gallon tanks on specially constructed trucks, hoisted with a lift some 

 feet back of the driver, and with lead shields behind the cab. The ex- 

 posure time for the driver was very short but exposure time created 

 a bottleneck in getting waste out to the pit despite its low level. A pipe- 

 line 7000 feet long now does the work of the trucks. 



•Multiply the hazard by several hundred to a thousand curies per 

 gallon, and it requires transportation in a container shielded with seven 

 to nine inches of lead all around, weighing many tons, and carrying 

 several gallons at a time. It is impractical. 



DR. ZUMWALT: Dr. Culler mentioned that economics require 

 one chemical plant for several reactors. But I wondered how about the 

 economics of field transportation. Is that considered in there? 



DR. CULLER: There have been several studies of the probable 

 cost of transportation of various kinds of carriers, but I don't think it 

 has been worked out and integrated into the economics of power. I am 

 saying that a central chemical plant is necessary from the standpoint 

 of the chemical plant alone, and within a DC structure it is economic 

 to ship fuel certain distances to a plant that already has the capacity 

 rather than building a new plant. An individual kind of analysis has to 

 be made and it isn't very clear at the moment, because the specifica- 

 tions have not been written on the reactor, the processing, the locations, 

 the power, etc . 



