• Fuel E l e m e n t s Are Key. A usable fuel element is the main stumbling block to plutonium's future as a reactor fuel. And plutonium's properties make fuel element fabrication a special case calling for special techniques and equipment. T h e element melts at a comparatively 1CJW
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ture and t h e melting point, plutonium exists in a t least six crystal forms, goes through five solid state transformations on heating or cooling. Large volume changes accompany the different solid states (up to 8.9V< in one case). And some of these phases show anisotropic behavior {physical properties aren't the same in every direction ), especially in thermal expansion coefficients. Result is distortion during heating and cooling. Too, plutonium is hazardous in some respects. As with all nuclear fuels, criticaiity is a factor. Mass, shape, dis persion, a n d neutron energy, among others, influence criticality. And alpha particles, g a m m a or x-rays, and neu trons are emitted. Plutonium's intense emission of alpha particles is of greatest consequence. Although short (3.68 cm.), they can do a lot of d a m a g e to biological tissues. Plutonium gives off about 5 million times as m a n y alpha particles per gram as does u r a n i u m - 2 3 8 or thorium, thus requires sypecial handling. Finally, plu tonium is pyrophoric in some cases— finely divided samples such as turnings and powders, hydrides, some alloys, and impure residues, for instance. Some of these difficulties can be overcome or minimized b y alloying the plutonium with metals like uranium, aluminum, or zirconium. T h e Argonne plant was designed with all these properties in mind. To mini mize fire hazards, helium is used as the process atmosphere. Alpha particle contamination is eliminated by means of a system of hoods or glove boxes branching out from each other in a her ringbone pattern. The hoods. 106 of them, are gasketed together to prevent air leakage. All operations needed to work plutonium are done in the hoods, most of t h e m b y remote control. Argonne scientists hope to translate the data on plutonium into commer cially significant terms. According to Foote, an industrial plutonium fabrica tor wouldn't need the extensive and elaborate p l a n t that Argonne has. Such a firm would need only the fuel fabricating ] i l i e without any experi mental a p p a r a t u s that makes up a large part of the cost of Argonne's plant.
Recovery Re-emphasized Adding further emphasis to business recovery in the chemical i n d u s t r y a favorable upturn in employment since the end of last year. Employment figures, which had been lagging behind the recovery shown by sales and pro duction—for the chemical industry as well as for business as a whole—now are beginning ο catch up. April figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show total chemical employment hit 845,000 last month, highest level since early fall, 1957 That's a gain of more than 20,000 since the end of the year and 18,000 since April 1958. Last year's monthly average: 821,000. Most of the increase comes in pro duction workers, up 19,000 since last December and 14,000 above a year ago. Actually, employment in the industry hit bottom last July, five months after the recession low in sales, when produc tion workers dropped off to just under 500,000 for the first time in recent years. Last month's total of over 533,000 production workers represents a gain of S'/t since then—and 4Vc since December. Higher employment, of course, re flects rising output and sales for chem ical firms. The industry's dollar vol ume, according to Department of Commerce figures, has tended to level off since mid-1958 at a quarterly rate in the neighborhood o c $6 billion. But sales for the first three months of this year add up to the best first quarter in the industry's history, 9'< ahead of a year ago and just a shade above the like quarters of 1956 and 1957. In ventories also have leveled out at a more favorable position. Since last June, the ratio of inventories to monthly sales has fluctuated narrowly between 1.8 and 2.0; in March of last year, stocks had built up to a postwar high of 2.2 months' sales. Output of chemical products, mean while, continues to score new records. In March, for the first time, production hit 200c'c of the 1947-49 average on the Federal Reserve Board's seasonally adjusted index. That's a gain of 14% from the1 recession low of 12 months earlier—and about &('< above the prerecession high of mid-1957. And out put continued to expand last month, FRB adds.
• Natural s t e a m as a commercial source of power will make its South
American debut by 1961. Venezuela has signed a letter of intent with Chemical Natural Resources, Inc. ( New York C i t y ) , to purchase initially more than 30 million kw.-hr. per year of electric power from a new* plant and to extend transmission lines inland from the coast city of Carupano to the plant JllV
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Venezuelan Sulphur Corp., Chemi cal Natural Resources' subsidiary, will build the plant. Italian sources highly experienced with geothermal power (generated from suffioni in Tuscany) will provide technical know-how and equipment and will construct the 5000 kw. generating unit. Pacific Gas & Electric, meanwhile, will break ground for a natural steam power plant in August in Sonoma County, Calif. (C&EN, Dec. 22, 1958, page 16). The 12,500 kw. plant should be running by 1960. • AEC will close its Monticello, Utah, uranium mill on or about Jan. 1, 1960, keep it in standby condition. The mill is now running at its "minimum eco nomic operating rate." To keep it going after Dec. 31 would mean—be sides adding $4 million to AEC's annual uranium expenditures—that the com mission would have to buy more ore than its programmed needs. After the closing, all domestic ore will be proc essed by the 22 privately owned mills operating throughout the West. • Recession effects catch up with de velopment on U. S. inland waterways (C&EN, March 9, page 2 5 ) . Accord ing to the American W a t e r w a y s O p e r a t o r s , only 77 industrial facilities on waterside sites were built or expanded during 1959's first quarter; AW Ο counted 151 durin 0 " last year's like period. Chemical and petroleum com panies lead the list of firms involved tiiis vear m wa^ersioe expansions— mostly terminals and dock facilities. • Varian Associates, Palo Alto, Calif., electronics firm, forms a research and development subsidiary: S-F-D Lab o r a t o r i e s , Inc. The new company, to be located in northern New Jersey, will help expand Variants scientific research program aimed at new product devel opment. • Nopco Chemical, Newark, N. J., acquires—for more than S3 million—all of the capital stock of Jacques Wolf & Co., Clifton, N. J. Nopco will operate the company, a producer of industrial chemicals for textile and leather, as a wholly owned subsidiary. MAY
2 5,
1959
C&EN
29
INDUSTRY & BUSINESS
DU PONT NEWS and REVIEWS Y es y you can get pure sodium nitrite that won't cake
Du Pont Pellets are 99.5% Pure! Sodium nitrite caking can bo a serious problem. But you don't have to sacrifice purity to solve it. You can avoid caking and have purity too—99.5*0 purity. There's no anti-caking agent or other filler in Du Pont pellets. Yet they don't cake, don't dust. How a b o u t solubility? You don't lose a bit of solubility with our pellets: you can dissolve a full 7 lbs. into a gallon of 70 F. water, the same as with sodium nitrite salt. The pellets take slightly longer to dissolve than the salt, not enough to matter in most operations. Like t o s a v e w a r e h o u s e
• Alcoa restarts another 20,000 ton-per- ceived during the quarter were the \ear primai > aluminum potline at its highest for any quarter in the company's Port Comfort. Tex., plant, five of tlu- history, exceeding sales volume by over For t h e nine-month period six lines there are now operating. T h e •V r . lompam is also restarting a 20,000 through March, profits totaled $1.4 million on 1 1 ' / higher sales; for t h e ton-per-year line at Vancouver. Wash. like period last vear. Heckman showed OJU*I a in ι *4 uitt - win tiieu oc approxi mutely &2'< of the company's 798.250 an operating loss of $435,529. T h e ton annual capacity. Alcoa expects to company expects t h e current quarter produce about 624,000 tons of pig will b e the best of its 1959 fiscal year. aluminum this year, compared with k Alcoa plans capital outlays of $ 6 5 520,000 tons in 1958. million this year, bringing total spend ing since it announced a $600 million N e w Facilities . · . capital expenditure program three years • Another liquid hydrogen p l a n t is ago t o $530 million. No projects in coming, as Union Carbide's Linde Co. the original program have been elimi makes plans to build one at Torrance, nated or reduced, says president Frank Magee, although completion dates have Calif.; it will supph the Xational Aero been extended in some cases. Morenautics and Space Administration with up to 3.3 million pounds a year to b e oxer, some n e w projects have been used for high energy fuel. Air Products added to t h e program. is presently handling t h e Air Force's needs for liquid hydrogen with a new • Universal Oil Products has declared an initial dividend on its common stock plant a t Palm Beach County, Fla. of 12 1 L. cents a share, payable June (C&EX, May 18, page 3 2 ) . 30. The company hopes to establish • Olin Vtathieson Chemical will spend a quarterly rate at least equal to the more than $ 6 million to replace electro current declaration. UOP shares were lytic cells for chlorine a n d caustic soda sold to thv public for the first time last production a t Niagara Falls, Ν . Υ. February. O-M says its chemicals division's changeover from 25 cycle to 60 cycle • F a r b w e r k e Hoechst reports sales for the first quarter of 1959 were higher electric power will aid t h e electrolytic cell program. T h e new cells will oc than a year ago. F o r all of last year, Hoechst's sales totaled about $450 mil cupy less space, yield a higher quality f ! product, and increase chlorine output. lion, u p 7 'f from 1957. Exports ac counted for 31 ff of this total. I I • Union Carbide Chemicals doubles ca I pacity for polyether polyols a t South I Charleston, \V. Va. Company says the I expansion was necessary to meet in creased demand for t h e product in I making polyether urethane foams. I Chemical's inorganic M a y 18, 1959 ] • Monscinto | chemicals division is modernizing its Advances J elemental phosphorus plant at Colum PREVIOUS CURREXT I bia, Term. The work is part of a long Casein. Argentine, lb. β 0 . 1 9 3V , S 0 . 1 9 V 2 0.15 Ά 0.1 (> Λ ! range expansion program for the plant. Castor oil. Brazilian, lb.
space? J • ClaremortY Pigment Dispersion Corp.
Du Pont pellets *ake up to 15% less room breaks ground for an addition to its than the salt form. 1 plant a t Roslyn Heights, Long Island, Free b o o k l e t If you'd like more infor X. Y. The firm manufactures dispersed mation on these pellets, you'll find all colors for plastics. you need in a 20-page booklet we've pre pared. I t gives complete physical and Financial · · · chemical properties, along with informa tion on handling practices. •Beckman Instruments' sales, orders, and earnings are running well ahead of For t h e booklet and or the address of the jobber a year ago. Sales for t h e three months neares- you. write to Du Pont, Explosives Department, Wilmington 98, Delaware. ended March 31 were u p 16'', to $11.3 million; net income amounted to S418,tt\\\ Π Π Κ Ι p\ "9 Better Living 395 against a loss of 8353,314 during VsUy p U r L i · ^ ...through Chemistry the first quarter of 1958. Orders re Be,terThi
30
C&EN
sfor
M A Y 2 5, 1 9 5 9
WEEK'S PRICE CHAN6ES
Coconut oil. Coast, lb. Copper scrap, lb. : No. 1 No. 2 Corn oil. crude, tanks. Fb. Cottonseed oil. Valley, l b . Eugenol. U S P l b . Gum karava. lb. : No. 1 No. 2 No. 3 Gum turpentine. So., gal. Menthol, l b . : Ρ «A7.ilian Synthetic, laevo Palm oil. drums, lb. Sovbean oil. Decatur, lb. Tin metal, lb.
0.203 Λ,
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0.27 Vs 0.2 Γ» 0.13 V* 0.12 V» 2.20
0 . 2 7 »/4 0.2f>»A 0.12V» 0.12'Λ 1.90
0.48 0.40 0.3Γ» 0.53» Λ
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0.25 β. 40 0.1 Γ, 0.0970 1.03
5.85 Γ».00 0.15» U 0 . 0 9 3 7 «/s 1.028/g
Declines Butvl acrvlate, monomer. tanks. îb. S M e n h a d e n oil. t a n k s , l b . : Alkali refined Kettle bodied Phenol. 90-90c; . tanks, lb.
0.40 O.IOV2 0 . 13 2 0.14 /4
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0.45
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