The Chemical World This Week
SUPREME COURT LIMITS NUCLEAR APPEALS The Supreme Court last week sent tremors through groups opposed to nuclear power when it ruled 7 to 0 to limit the role of lower federal courts in reviewing the decisions of federal regulatory agencies. The decision came in a nuclear plant licensing case brought to the high court by two utilities seeking to build power plants and by environmental groups seeking to block them. Supreme Court Justice William H. Rehnquist, speaking for the court, declared with uncharacteristic judicial candor that decisions made by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in the case amounted to "judicial intervention run riot." The justices held that the lower court had "improperly intruded" into the authority delegated by Congress to the Nuélear Regulatory Commission to make decisions about nuclear power safety. Justices Lewis F. Powell Jr. and Harry A. Blackmun did not take part in the decision, which one environmentalist lawyer concedes has left a number of environmental groups shaken. The case, which involved Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. and Consumers Power Co. of Michigan, both of which are attempting to build nuclear power plants, was sent back to the D.C. appeals court for further consideration. However, the high court admonished the appeals court not to "stray beyond the judicial province to explore the procedural format or to impose upon the agency its own notion of which procedures are best or most likely to further some vague, undefined public good." U.S. district courts and appeals courts long have been a favored fallback position for opponents of nuclear power to try to block construction of nuclear generating plants, sometimes by raising ancillary issues. Last week's decision may severely restrict the ability of the lower courts to intervene. Notes Rehnquist, "The fundamental questions appropriately resolved in Congress and in the state legislatures are not subject to reexamination in the federal courts . . . . Time may prove wrong the decision to develop nuclear energy, but it is Congress or the states within their appropriate agencies which eventually must make that judgment." The nuclear industry predictably 6
C&EN April 10, 1978
is delighted by the Supreme Court ruling. Carl Walske, president of the Atomic Industrial Forum, says that "we also welcome the Supreme Court's finding that nuclear interveners simply cannot raise an issue before NRC without presenting substantive aspects of the issue." Nevertheless, the Natural Resources Defense Council, which opposes the utilities in the case, minimizes the damage from the court ruling. The council's lawyer, Richard Ayers, says the group is still "optimistic" since the court took "the unusual step" of sending the case back to the appeals court for further consideration. Moreover, he believes that
because of NRDC's challenge, the federal government has been forced to recognize nuclear waste disposal as a serious consideration in nuclear power development, an issue that the environmental group raised. At minimum, though, the decision is significant, according to Robert V. Zener, formerly general counsel of the Environmental Protection Agency now with the Washington, D.C, law firm of Pepper, Hamilton & Scheetz. "It is a clear signal that the [Supreme] Court is not going to put up with nitpicking by federal judges as a way of imposing their substantive views on agency decisions—particularly in the energy area." D
New NMR has higher power, resolution A 600-MHz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, with nearly twice the resolution of the strongest commercially available system, has been built by a joint research team from Inter-magnetics General Corp., Guilderland, N.Y., and Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh. Intermagnetics president Carl H. Rosner and Carnegie-Mellon president Richard M. Cyert disclosed last week that laboratory tests with the spectrometer have revealed hitherto unobserved details in the spectra of hemoglobin and the antibiotic gramicidin S. Field strengths in the spectrometer are high enough to separate resonance frequencies to one part in a billion. Such fields are attained by using magnet windings made of Intermagnetic's niobium 310 superconducting tape, a niobium-tin alloy that remains superconducting at very high currents. Unfortunately, 310 tape develops a very slight resistance at junctions with its nonsuperconducting power leads. Thus, the spectrometer must be operated with a small, but continuous input of power. Researchers involved with the project say that the real key to its success is development of an electronic feedback system that maintains the power input—and thus the magnetic field—at a rock-steady level. Demonstration experiments with the system have been conducted by Intermagnetics engineers and by Dr.
Aksel A. Bothner-By and Dr. Josef Dadok of Carnegie-Mellon. In one study they looked at carbon monoxyhemoglobin A. Bothner-By explains that high-field NMR studies of this molecule show peaks, called "ringcurrent shifted resonances" that are thought to come from protons above the plane of the hemoglobin ring. Previous spectrometers have resolved five such resonances. The new instrument resolves 12. In the case of gramicidin S, the new spectrometer has resolved side-chain proton resonances completely. This was impossible before. Development of the 600-MHz NMR was funded by the National
Dr. Josef Dadok of Carnegie-Mellon adjusts controls on new NMR
Institutes of Health. Similar units eventually are expected to be made available commercially. The original device, meanwhile, will soon be moved to Carnegie-Mellon, where it will become part of NIH's National NMR Facility for Biomedical Studies and will be available to all qualified researchers. D
sprains, osteoarthritis, and the like. Dolobid received approval from the | U.K. Committee on the Safety of Medicines last year and from com Profit margin, % parable regulatory bodies in Belgium 8 and Denmark. Registration is immi nent in France, Sweden, and else Martin Marietta ^ ^ ^ where. It still awaits clearance by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. 6 Dolobid's active ingredient is 2,4X difluorophenyl salicylic acid, in which / ^ / ' the difluorophenyl moiety is para to / Airco φ * ' BOC Airco takeover A salicylic acid's carboxyl group. Elim ination of aspirin's acetyl radical and becomes more clouded the presence of 2,4-difluorophenyl combine to give Dolobid its superior Events last week put Airco's fight to pharmacological activity. Simple as avoid being taken over by BOC In 2 this substitution may seem, the new ternational into even more confusion. chemical is the result of about 20 Martin Marietta officially entered the years of research effort that Merck game with a bid of $50 per share for I I I executives conservatively estimate the outstanding stock of Airco. The o 1973 74 75 76 77 cost their company some $15 million. offer was quickly accepted by Airco's Nor will commercial production be a 13-member board of directors by a Note: Profit margin is net income as a percentage of net sales. I simple procedure. In all, 12 discrete 10-to-3 vote. The three votes against chemical steps are involved in the the proposal were cast by BOC's manufacturing process. representatives on the board. 2,4-Difluorophenyl salicylic acid, or Before the vote, BOC notified sition of Airco. Other conditions in Airco that, as majority shareholder clude that no other company make a diflunisal as it is commonly referred with a 54% holding in Airco, it had bid higher than $50 per share and to, is rapidly and completely absorbed changed the bylaws so that a unani that the business not change sub in the body reaching peak plasma mous vote of the board was needed to stantially by the time the deal is levels within two hours after ingestion approve a merger proposal. BOC then closed. One other condition puts the of a single dose. In studies involving deal seriously in doubt. That is the long-term treatment of chronic pain called the merger vote invalid. Also last week, James M. Smith, resolution of the pending lawsuit over associated with osteoarthritis, be chief of the New Jersey Bureau of the legality of BOC's tender offer and tween 250 and 375 mg of diflunisal, Securities, issued a cease and desist the resolution of the ownership of the administered twice daily, have the order that prohibited BOC from ac disputed 1.8 million Airco shares. D equivalent pain-relief effect of up to 900 mg of aspirin taken four times quiring any more Airco stock as well daily. Like aspirin, diflunisal is be as preventing BOC from voting any lieved to work by inhibiting produc stock acquired after Jan. 4. This tion of prostaglandins. would include more than 2.6 million Merck develops potent shares. However, the order was au aspirin substitute An important aspect of diflunisal tomatically stayed, Smith tells is that, unlike aspirin, it has no ap C&EN, when BOC appealed the There are few households today that parent effect on blood platelet order. The stay will remain in effect don't keep a bottle of aspirin handy. aggregation or other hematological until after hearings on the matter by Since it was first synthesized by Dr. parameters. Equally important, it the Bureau of Securities. In effect, Felix Hofmann in 1889, acetylsali- does not bring about gastric or intes this means that, as far as New Jersey cylic acid has ranked among the most tinal bleeding. Moreover, Dolobid is concerned, things are back to the common medications. Last week, does not produce tinnitus, the sen way they were before the order was Merck Sharp & Dohme Ltd., the U.K. sation of noise that continued use of issued. BOC can acquire more subsidiary of Merck & Co., head aspirin frequently induces. D stock—although it has said that it will quartered in Rahway, N.J., launched not—and BOC can vote the shares an aspirin substitute that, the com that it already owns. pany claims, is more potent and has DOE panel asks solar However, according to a federal a longer-lasting analgesic effect. At court in Wilmington, Del., BOC can the same time, it does not cause the energy R&D changes not vote the 1.8 million shares that it degree of adverse side effects associ picked up in its January tender offer ated with aspirin's use. Some significant changes in emphasis (C&EN, Jan. 30, page 6). The court is Tradenamed Dolobid, the active and in allocation of resources for se expected to rule later this month on ingredient will be made in a $30 mil lected technologies should be made in whether BOC can keep these 1.8 lion plant that Thomas Morson Co., the Department of Energy's solar million shares or whether they will a Merck associate company, is energy R&D program, according to a have to be returned to their former building at Ponders End near Lon study of the program by the depart owners. don. When it starts up early next ment's Solar Working Group. As long as these shares remain in year, the plant will be capable of The group notes that the public has doubt, or if they are awarded to BOC, producing sufficient material to make high expectations for successful it will be impossible for Airco to more than 400 million tablets annu commercialization of solar technolo muster a majority vote of its stock ally. In addition to supplying the gies. But at the same time the public holders to approve a merger with British market, Merck will export underestimates costs for solar energy Martin Marietta. Majority approval Dolobid to countries where it has development and the time needed to is one of the conditions that Martin been cleared for use for the relief of achieve desired and expected results. Marietta set for its proposed acqui- pain caused by dental surgery, These pressures, it says, lead to dis-
Profitability has risen for Airco, suitors since 1973
April 10, 1978 C&EN
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