PRODUCTION Radiation Meets Industry A p a t h y M
M
M
Economic incentives are not there n o w ; to speed up its acceptance, a familiar r e m e d y — f e d e r a l money MASSIVE RADIATION as an industrial
tool is far, far away, according to a report just released by Atomic Energy Commission's Office of Isotopes Development. So far, the report adds, for almost every process which could be handled with radiation in large quantities, there is at least one other way to do it cheaper. This does not mean that radiation should be relegated to dusty files, however. Much of the reason for industry's lack of enthusiasm for it is that no one has any real idea of how much radiation processing w ill cost on a megawatt scale. Estimates range from 10 cents a kilowatt-hour up to SI or more. • Lower Cost Radiation Needed. For it to be competitive on a cost basis only, radiation energy must be in the range of mills per kilowatt-hour, most potential users feel. Hence its potential probably lies in spots where it can do something that can't now be done or where it does something unique where the higher costs will not be limiting. And none which truly fit these criteria are near at hand now . This report—A Management Evaluation of Massive Radiation for industrial Utilization—was prepared for A EC by Emerson Radio and Phonograph as part of the effort by A EC's isotopes office to push industrial acceptance of radiation (C&EN, Oct. 13, 1958, page 3 2 ) . T h e report is a summary of four more-detailed studies by Arthur D. Little, Inc., William H. Johnston Laboratories and Radiation Aoolications on aspects of the larger subject. AEC feels that radiation energy will probably be a fourth major industrial process variable, taking its place beside heat, pressure, and catalysis. But with such projections of its economics, it will be a long time coming if left to itself. Thus, the Emerson group which prepared the report urges that A E C take the lead in moving it along faster. 48
C&EN
SEPT.
7,
1959
Specific îvcoiviîviencl-iiions:
• Establish a National Industrial Radiation Development Center as the focal point for studies in this field. • Study basic effects of radiation on a few selected chemical systems to find effects of temperature, pressure, catalysts, impurities, and the like on yields (G-values), specificity of action, side reactions.
• Develop radiation source technology and irradiator design. AEC should make sure that radioisotope sources will always l>e available as needed. • Develop ehemonuclear reactor technology to produce radiation energy at a low unit cost and reasonable capital investment. • Use some process as a "lead dog"— with federal money, design and build
Radiation's Pros, So Far, Are Neutralized by Its Cons. Radiation can ionize at any temperature, pressure, or state of matter
Ions in themselvas valuable
Ions produce free radicals
Heat, electricity, and chemicals also produce free radicals, usually cheaper
Radiation can reduce process steps
Fete examples
Radiation doesn't need catalysts— which often contaminate product
So far, this has offered vantage
Radiation can act at a distance
There are usually other ways to get the same effect
Radiation produces active ions and other species which could lead to unique reactions
Little is known of these practical systems
reactions
in
Radiation excites particles
High energy states are not needed most chemical effects
for
Radiation dislocates atoms in solids— potentially useful in catalyst activation and the like
It also damages
Cost is Biggest Barrier... Radiation now cosis $8-11 kwh. 0>' 3 kw. $ 2 - 4 kwh. Ci'' 30 kw. Projected to 10' kwh. at megawatt sources Should
be mills kivh. for economic
promise
have not yet
have been
many
proved
found only slight
materials
ad-
a plant to make some useful chemical by radiation, just to show industry that the1 approach would he worthwhile. • Inform the public that radiation used tor industrial processes is safe. • Long-Range Program. This pro gram would need several million dol lars a year to be effective, the report says. It would have to b e a continu ing thing—set up for at least five years at a time. And backing u p its recom mendations, it points out that if the U. S. docs not go ahead along these or similar lines, industry may well miss out on processes which could he profit able. The report also dredges up the old phantom of the Soviet Γηίοη to support its recommendations. It says: " W e feel that the technology of radiation as applied to processes in the United States is not demonstrably ahead of radiation technology abroad; that the amount of effort being exerted in this field in Soviet Hussia may he greater than in the United States. . . . The ef forts of private industry alone are not likely to place nor to maintain the U. S. in a position or leadei^hip in radiation energy utilization." Whether or not concern over Russia's abilities is valid, one fact stands out clearly in the summary report and in all the detailed reports—if massive ra diation processing has to stand only on its abilities to return a profit, it is many years away from being widely aeeepted in American industry.
• Atomic Energy Commission gives n $1.1 million contract to W . A. Klinger, Inc., for construction of a metals process development building for the Ames Laboratory, an AEC facility located on the Iowa State University campus at Ames, Iowa. The new building will al low the lab to conduct metal process development research on larger-thanlaboratory scale, and to evaluate tl commercial feasibility of any process developed. • Dollar volume of orders in the mate rial handling equipment industry for 1959's first six months is 3 3 ' ' above the bookings made in the first half of 1958, says the Material Handling Institute. Orders booked in June scored 170.72, using 100 as the monthly average for the base vear 1954. June's figure is the highest since June1 1956.
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