News of the Week results in fissile plutonium-239 as the product. This can be separated from the uranium by chemical and physical processes. Much of the plutonium in the U.S. is made this way. Most analysts of the situation do not believe Iraq has the scientific expertise at this time to utilize this size reactor for research effectively. According to Nuclear Regulatory Commission member Victor Gilinsky, these reactors are used most frequently for testing materials for nuclear power plants for effects of neutron bombardment and for evaluating new fuel element designs, both usually as part of a large ongoing nuclear power program. Gordon Thompson, a spokesman for the Union of Concerned Scientists, concurs, adding that Iraq appears to be a couple of decades away from developing a large nuclear program. The conclusion of many observers is that Iraq would have used the plant to make plutonium, despite the nation's claims to the contrary. Iraq had contracted with an Italian firm to build "hot cells" at the reactor— shielded rooms that, according to Thompson, would have given Iraq the capability to separate 5 to 10 kg of plutonium from uranium each year. Enough to make a nuclear weapon. Thompson adds that even if the French had been able to convince Iraq to use a new, low-enriched uranium fuel, called caramel, that is only 6.8% uranium-235, the reactor still would have a high enough neutron density to produce appreciable amounts of plutonium. D
Neil E. Gordon
cialized as the chemistry and physics of laser diagnostics in combustion. It's not the topics that make the Gordon Research Conferences so special, but the way they are held. Informality and discussion are the key. Each conference is kept down to 100 to 110 scientists to encourage informal discussions. Sessions are held in the mornings and after supper, so that the afternoons are free for recreation and more informal talking. And the late night "bull sessions" often last until 2 AM or later. Everything is "off the record" at
these conferences, and scientists often present half-completed experiments or talk about their most tentative theories without fear of potential embarrassment by quotation. No cameras or tape recorders are allowed, and no information can be used without permission. The conferences were the idea of the late Neil E. Gordon, who began holding small informal conferences for well-qualified researchers from universities, industry, and government laboratories in 1931 at Johns Hopkins University's chemistry department. They moved to Gibson Island in nearby Chesapeake Bay from 1935 to 1946 and to New Hampshire in 1947. They have been under the direction of Alexander M. Cruickshank, chemistry professor at the University of Rhode Island, and his wife, Irene, since 1947. The growing popularity of the conferences soon made them oversubscribed, and that, combined with the travel difficulties of West Coast scientists wanting to attend them, led to a series of West Coast conferences that began in 1963. This year there will be 115 conferences, 10 in California and the rest in New Hampshire. Of these, 13 will be in new subject areas. Over the years there have been 2081 week-long sessions on some 200 topics with more than 200,000 scientists participating in them. D
Gordon Conferences mark 50th year The hills of New Hampshire received the first wave of their annual influx of research scientists last week as this year's first nine Gordon Research Conferences got under way. This season marks the 50th year for the conferences. Every Sunday afternoon from now until mid-August, a dozen or so chartered buses will pull up at Boston's Logan Airport to pick up several hundred sportshirt-clad scientists, with their running shoes and tennis rackets as well as their slides and notebooks, and take them for a twohour trip to one of eight colleges and private schools in rural New Hampshire. There they will exchange ideas with colleagues and competitors in week-long conferences that can be on topics as broad as cancer or as spe6
C&EN June 15, 1981
Oxy's superphosphoric acid off to the Soviet Union The Oxy Trader, shown here at its recent christening, is carrying the first load of superphosphoric acid from Jacksonville, Fla., to the Soviet Union following President Reagan's lifting of the phosphate embargo imposed in February 1980. The present cargo of 30,000 metric tons will load to a planned total of 500,000 tons shipped to the Soviet Union in 1981. The acid is part of Occidental Petroleum's $20 billion fertilizer deal with the Soviets, by which ammonia already is coming to the U.S.
