NEWS;!
Sept. 13 1954 WALTER J. MURPHY, Editor
The Chemical Profession and The "Nucleonics A g e " A. BAR CHART published in the most recent issue of Chemical News, published b y the Manufacturing Chemists' Association, shows that about 30% of the scientific and engineering staff of t h e Atomic Energy Commission, including associated contractors, are chemists or chemical engineers. That fission is not exclusively a physicist's world is demonstrated by t h e following breakdown of the 13,612 who make u p the scientific and engineering staff: Chemists 2411 Chemical engineers 1634 Mechanical engineers 1843 Physicists 1708 738 Other physical scientists Biological and medical scientists 1617 Electrical engineers 1346 Metallurgical engineers 408 Other types of engineers 1907 O n e can only guess at t h e volume of research presently being conducted in t h e broad field of nucleonics. The total, if known, would certainly stagger t h e publics imagination. T h e AEC, of course, through contractors is spending vast sums on research in the weapons field and in peacetime applications of nuclear energy. But this is not the whole story. Many industrial firms throughout the country have been developing privately a great variety of research projects during the past few years. Passage of the new Atomic Energy Law will stimulate this trend. The chemist and chemical engineer in the years ahead will play major roles in every stage—research, development, and large scale operations. Chemists and chemical engineers are particularly cost-conscious and this attribute will be increasingly important as small scale research projects are translated into commercial operation. Some processes, sound theoretically, have lain on the shelf because of economic roadblocks. Not infrequently these obstacles have been removed by better design of equipment, b y the development of cheaper materials of construction, by t h e discovery of materials less corrosive, b y t h e introduction of metals a n d synthetic materials capable of withstanding very high temperatures and pressures, a n d b y adapting the instrumentation employed by t h e analyst to automatic control of processes in t h e plant. Still another characteristic of chemists and chemical engineers, that of teamwork, will be important in the further development of peacetime uses of atomic energy, including power. Modern chemical process industries have moved ahead swiftly because chemists and chemical engineers have learned to operate as a highly integrated team. This type of team approach has been in effect in all well organized chemical and chemical proc-
ess industries, not just for a year or two, b u t for many years. So many, in fact, that management takes such close coordination as a matter of fact, not something out of the ordinary. T h e quarterback of a football team is certainly a n important part of the team, but he alone is not the team. Unless h e has 10 other capable players on t h e field cooperating with him, each one a specialist, though a t times playing other positions, there can b e no team— and, of course, no victories. So it is with modern chemical technology and this is one of the chief reasons why the chemical industry and those industries largely based on chemical technology have grown and prospered so well in the past two decades. Each member of the technical team, r e gardless of specific title, knows the problems of t h e other members and is expected to contribute in a substantial way to their solution. This kind of approach will b e invaluable in t h e "Nucleonics Age."
Pollution Control P O S S I B L E cures or treatments of men's maladies, n e w synthetics to make life better or easier, new chemicals to protect crops, and other developments will receive due attention in the press coverage of the ACS national meeting which starts today. It is our guess, however, that the work of the group involved in reporting progress on efforts to abate and prevent air pollution, will receive less public attention. This is understandable because the problem is so complex that no simple panacea will be announced which could b e hailed as the answer to the whole problem. Nevertheless, from a long range viewpoint, the symposia on air an J water pollution which the ACS has been sponsoring at its national meetings for the past decade or more, may well prove to be milestones in overcoming this problem. The present meeting is no exception. Three divisions—Analytical, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, and Water, Sewage and Sanitation—are joining forces to present a series of papers on analytical methods and instrumentation in air pollution and processes and equipment for its control. The magnitude of air and stream pollution and the effort being made to abate and control such concL ions a r e evident when it is realized that the chemical industry alone is spending an estimated $40 million a year for pollution control. T h e Manufacturing Chemists' Association, which reports this figure, also notes that 2.5 to 4.0% of all chemical plant construction costs are for antipollution equipment. MCA also notes that sizable portions of the industry's $300 million annual research budget is for abatement studies. W e are proud that the AMERICAN C H E M I C A L SOCIETY
is in the forefront in recognizing this problem and is supporting efforts to solve it.
