University Daily Kansan
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AEC to Build Full-Scale A-Plant
Chicago (U.P.)-The Atomic Energy commission announced today that it is going to build history's first full-scale atomic power plant to chain the atom for peace as well as for possible war.
Atomic Commissioner Thomas E. Murray said "this is America's answer" to the recent tests behind the Iron Curtain that revealed Russia's swift march toward development of the hydrogen bomb.
"It should show the world that even in this gravest phase of arming for defense America's eyes are still on the peaceful future." Mr. Murray said.
Mr. Murray revealed the AEC decision in a speech prepared for delivery before the Electric Companies Public Information program here. He said the plant will cost "tens of millions" of dollars and probably take three to four years to build.
"... for years the splitting atom packaged in wemps, has been on main shield against the barbarians. Now, in addition, it is to become a God-given instrument to do the constructive work of mankind."
The pioneer plant, ushering in a new era in atomic development, will be built for the commission by
Thursday, Oct. 22, 1953
Westinghouse Electric corporation. It will produce a "minimum of 60,000 kilowatts of electrical energy with good possibilities of much higher output."
Mr. Murray said the commission is thinking of locating it at or near one of its gaseous diffusion plants where fissionable A-bomb material is produced.
For another, he said, "unless we embark on an all-out attack on our nuclear power program immediately, we may be deprived of foreign uranium ores."
The commissioner warned that it is just as important for the United States to beat Russia in the development of industrial atomic power as it is fopit to stay ahead in A-bomb production.
For one thing, he said, it would be "unsafe to assume" Soviet scientists cannot match U.S. experts in developing atomic power.
"Once we become fully conscious of the possibility that power-hungry countries will gravitate toward the USSR if it wins the nuclear power race," he said. "... it will be quite clear that this power race is no Everest - climbing, kudos - proving contest."
Mr. Murray's announcement came as the climax to a long, behind-the-scenes debate over the emphasis to be placed on power development, as opposed to the atomic weapons program, and whether the government or private industry should finance the program.
It is clear the power program now will get high priority. And although Mr. Murray said private industry will be invited to help out and to invest capital if it wants, it was decided that only the federal government had the necessary resources to undertake the project.
Experts of the Federal Power commission said a 60,000-kilowatt generating station would be big enough to supply the electrical needs of an average American city of 100,000 population. Conventional power plants now in operation range from about 25,000 kilowatts capacity, for a small steam-powered plant, to more than 2 million kilowatts, produced by the huge Grand Coulee
There are presently three diffusion plants, at or near which the new plant may be built. They are Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Paducah, Ky., and Portsmouth, Ohio. These all use vast quantities of electricity.
Burl Ives Says Music Links Modern Day to Famous Eras
London—(U.P.)-Burl Ives is about to publish what he believes is the first singing history, and an anonymous little boy who trotted along a New York street singing "Diddle, Diddle Dumpling, My son, John," can take a lot of the credit.
For it suddenly occurred to the ballad singer that the little boy was singing the same song little boys sang in 1773 and 1774 in the American colonies to taunt the British redcoats then pouring in to enforce the decrees of King George III.
"The music had telescoped the centuries." Burl said before sailing for the United States. "You can teach kids history in school but it most always remains largely a matter of words and imagination. There is so little that can be done to bring back the actual past to them.
"But there is one such link—music. Every phase of our history has been sung about at the time and these songs are now a unique kind of history themselves. By singing them our children can be made to
travel back to the era they are studying.
"They can sing the ballads of the Irish immigrants, of the Pilgrims, of the western pioneers, of the mining camps, the brawling political campaigns of the early 19th century."
He mentioned "The Praties They Grow Small"—a song about the failure of the Irish potato crop in 1840, sung by many Irish immigrants, and another Irish immigrant song, "Patrick on the Railroad."
The West was the place where new lives began and many a past was left behind. Ives said, and in the early 1800's this was incorporated in a ballad: "What Was Your Name in the States?" The Gold Rush by sea to California in anything that would float was immortalized in "A Ripping Trip."
CHOICE OF YOUNG AMERICA FOR THE FIFTH STRAIGHT YEAR—