ppb), Johnson's Baby Lotion (100 ppb), and Avon Topaz (100 ppb). Fine has provided his data to the Food & Drug Administration. FDA says it "will evaluate the new information as part of its continuing program to assure the safety of marketed cosmetics." Under a grant from the National Science Foundation's Research Applied to National Needs program, the Thermo Electron scientists have been working to get an overview of potential exposure of people to Af-nitrosamines. Among their studies was one showing AT-nitrosodiethanolamine to be present in industrial cutting fluids formulated with triethanolamine and sodium nitrite. These results led them to study toiletries containing di- and triethanolamines. D
Panel calls for halt on breeder reactors The development of commercial breeder reactors and the recycling of plutonium should be postponed indefinitely, according to a report on nuclear power released last week by the Ford Foundation. In fact, nuclear power may not be essential after all, the foundation's panel of 21 prestigious scientists and economists has concluded. They estimate that a total ban on nuclear power would depress the gross national product less than 2%, even into the next century. The panel agrees, however, that conventional uranium reactors will remain competitive with other energy sources, assuming t h a t vigorous prospecting can uncover enough new uranium ore to use as fuel without plutonium from breeder reactors. A combination of conventional reactors and coal-fired plants thus could meet U.S. energy needs for many decades to come, though at rising costs. By the time uranium begins to run out, the panel believes, alternative energy sources such as fusion and solar power likely will be competitive, making breeders unnecessary. The panel also is convinced that conventional reactors can be operated safely, and that the intensely radioactive waste products of reactor fission can be disposed of with little hazard. The truly serious risks, the panel concludes, are not technical but political: terrorism and the proliferation of nuclear weapons. And the only way to reduce these risks substantially, it says, is to eliminate bomb-grade plutonium from the fuel cycle. The report recommends: • Postponing plutonium repro8
C&EN March 28, 1977
cessing and recycling in current reactors indefinitely. Extraction of fissionable plutonium from spent fuel would be only marginally profitable, yet it would be by far the riskiest step in the fuel cycle. • Accordingly, storing spent fuel elements in their unreprocessed state, in underground facilities that can be converted into permanent disposal sites when necessary. • Recasting the breeder program as a long-range energy insurance policy. Breeders would not be competitive in any case until the 21st century, and with plenty of uranium available they would not be needed to make new fuel for conventional reactors. • The U.S.'s working toward an international censensus against plutonium reprocessing and commercial breeders, and for tighter nuclear safeguards. The panel, led by chairman Spurgeon M. Keeny Jr. of Mitre Corp. think tank, presented its report Monday afternoon to President Carter and to energy chief James Schlesinger. Carter plans to announce a comprehensive energy policy April 20.
Although the Administration made no comment on the report, reaction elsewhere was mixed. Physicist Henry Kendall, a director of the antinuclear Union of Concerned Scientists, called the report "a surprisingly strong conclusion. It will be very useful," he said, "in diminishing the industry's claims." The Atomic Industrial Forum, a Washington-based nuclear industry trade group, also found much to applaud in the report. But it accused the panel of timidity on the safeguards and proliferations question, and asserted that a breeder "insurance policy" requires vigorous research and development right now. Others questioned the panel's optimistic projection of uranium resources far in excess of the Energy Research & Development Administration's assessment. "Such numbers express a hope, rather than a present reality," says geologist Eugene Cameron of the University of Wisconsin. "They are not a realistic basis for policy planning." The complete report of the panel, "Nuclear Power Issues and Choices," has been published by Ballinger Publishing Co., Cambridge, Mass. •
Mobay will build huge ne v pigments plant Mobay Chemical will build a $50 million iron oxide pigment facility at New Martinsville, W.Va., the company announced last week at a wideranging press conference in New York City. Mobay is the U.S. chemical arm of Bayer A.G. of West Germany. The new facility will produce pigments for the U.S. market. Mobay's iron oxide pigments are sold under the tradename Bayferrox. The first stage of construction is a 30 million lb-per-year plant scheduled to begin production in late 1978. Within the following two years, a second stage will bring total iron oxide pigment capacity to 91 million lb per year. This will make the West Virginia plant the largest single iron oxide facility in the country, according to Mobay. Plans call for the new plant to be integrated with present production facilities in New Martinsville. The process that will be used involves reduction of nitrobenzene to iron oxide and coproduct aniline. Mobay already produces aniline at New Martinsville by hydrogenation of nitrobenzene. The additional production of aniline will be used to make isocyanates. The new facility is just part of Bayer's commitment to expansion in U.S. markets (C&EN, March 14, page 13). Dr. Herbert Grunewald, chair-
man of Bayer's board of management, says, "By the mid-1980's, North America is expected to account for 20% of our worldwide sales,"—up from 14% in 1976. Dr. Gerhard Dittmar, representative of the North America region on the board of management, says that the company plans to invest about $500 million in the U.S. during the next five years. This proves that "we have singled out the U.S. for a major effort," according to Dittmar. Bayer already has spent about $300 million during the past three years on expansion and new facility construction in the U.S. Dr. K. M. Weis, president and chief executive officer of Mobay, says that Mobay's net sales jumped by more than 30% to $544 million in 1976. This gain is explained by the startup of a new hydrazine complex in Baytown, Tex., and an agricultural chemical plant producing herbicides in Kansas City, Mo., according to Weis. At the same time Bayer said that a joint venture company has been formed by Cutter Laboratories, Berkeley, Calif., and the Kabi Group, Stockholm. The new company, named Cutter-Bitrum Inc., will market a line of intravenous nutritional products in the U.S. Mobay and Cutter are subsidiaries of Rhinechem Corp., Bayer's holding company for U.S. interests. D
