73. 



of us at the conference, and it should be kept in mind that England's 

 problems are world problems just as ours are, and any thoughts we 

 might have on the disposal of waste from England will also be of bene- 

 fit to us . 



CHAIRMAN HESS: I think it would be difficult to consider con- 

 struction outside the United States. Construction of reactors and dis- 

 posal of waste in most countries will probably follow the pattern set by 

 the originators. There is nobody here who knows enough of the geol- 

 ogy of out-of-the-way places to give intelligent data. A lot of people 

 here are familiar with many parts of the United States, so we can come 

 to rather specific conclusions about many places, whereas I don't know 

 that we are competent to tackle the geology of England from our pro- 

 fessional experience, and whatever we do here, except for England, 

 will probably be followed in other countries. We can find solutions for 

 the conditions in the United States and we can work out analogous solu- 

 tions for other areas in the future. I think we have sufficient diversity 

 within the United States to meet any conditions any other country would 

 face. I don't think -we should discuss outside areas. 



DR. LACEY: Such things as costs and amortization would be 

 considerations in competitive industry or would be handled by fairly 

 substantial government subsidy. I propose we omit these items and 

 think of the technological feasibility of the solutions to the problems 

 nearest to us. If solutions are found, the costs will be dealt with in 

 the normal development of the industry. 



CHAIRMAN HESS: I think that is right, for we will not have cost 

 figures for the means of disposal that we suggest. 



DR. ABELSON: On the other hand, if the cost of disposal is more 

 than the cost of storage in tanks, it is not a good solution. 



DR. G. F. JENKINS: I would like to add that the Union Carbide 

 Company is deeply interested in these considerations as a private firm. 

 We are working with practically all the power reactor groups in designs 

 of chemical processing plants to purify reactor fuels. The variations 

 are certainly complex: in the government reactor program there are 

 about five kinds of reactors, and the A.E.C. is encouraging the devel- 

 opment of new types of reactors. There is no advantage in building 

 just one kind, so the physicists, the metallurgists, and the mechanical 

 engineers are being encouraged to develop new reactor designs, new 

 reactor arrangements, and new metallurgical alloys. For example, 



