The Chemical World This Week
CARTER REJECTS PLUTONIUM AS NUCLEAR FUEL President Carter's pronouncements on the future of U.S. nuclear energy and nuclear nonproliferation policy have left the fast breeder reactor and plutonium reprocessing in the lurch. In doubt now are more than $2.5 bil lion worth of public and private nu clear projects. In his statements at the White House on April 7, Carter clearly re jected plutonium as a nuclear fuel of the future. Carter's reason is simple: Plutonium is the stuff that nuclear weapons are made from, and he doesn't want it to fall into the wrong hands, or into any more hands than now have it. Carter declares that it will be Administration policy to deemphasize the commercial breeder reactor (which uses and produces plutonium) and avoid completely reprocessing spent nuclear fuel to obtain the plutonium contained therein. Ironically, on the same day that Carter made his thoughts known, a blue-ribbon panel of scientists ad vised the Energy Research & Devel opment Administration that the U.S. should not foreclose the fast breeder reactor as a potential energy source. Although Carter says that he will not terminate "as such" ERDA's Clinch River breeder reactor in Ten nessee near Oak Ridge, he does say that "we will restructure the U.S. breeder program to give greater pri ority to alternate designs of the breeder, and to defer the date when breeder reactors would be put into commercial use." But since the whole
point of the Clinch River reactor was to demonstrate commercial breeder technology, Carter's decision puts the future of the $2 billion program in limbo. Carter also believes that the U.S. nuclear industry can get along just fine without reprocessing plutonium. Referring to the now half-finished $500 million Allied-General Nuclear Services plant at Barnwell, S.C., Carter warns that the plant "will re ceive neither federal encouragement nor funding for its completion as a reprocessing facility." Allied Chemical, a 50-50 partner in the Barnwell plant with General Atomic Corp., believes Carter's deci sion is shortsighted and points out that utilities can get 50% more elec tricity from plutonium than they can from uranium. An Allied spokesman says the firm believes that the plant still is valuable as an international reprocessing center, and it should be used together with other nations rather than "put them in confronta tion with the U.S." Nuclear industry reaction pre dictably was negative. Carl Walske, president of the Atomic Industrial
Taconite disposal plan upheld by state court
Reserve Mining's plans to build a land disposal site for its taconite tailings moved a step closer to reali zation last week when the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling ordering state agencies to issue construction permits. The state at torney general has decided not to appeal that decision to the U.S. Su preme Court. Dispute and litigation over what Reserve Mining should do with its taconite tailings have been going on for at least eight years. The company, owned by Armco Steel and Republic Steel, mines taconite at Babbitt, Minn., and ships it 47 miles to Silver Bay, on Lake Superior. There, it separates iron oxide from the lowgrade ore, then dumps the waste rock—some 67,000 tons per day— into the lake. The practice came under fire be cause the tailings contain asbestoslike fibers, some of which apparently find Carter decision puts future of Barη welt their way into municipal water I supplies in the area. The health im reprocessing plant up in air 6
C&EN April 18, 1977
Forum, warns that Carter's plutoni um proposals "are mortgages on our energy future. There is much more energy available from plutonium than from our coal deposits." Walske also notes that because nations such as France, West Germany, and Japan plan to go ahead with plutonium re processing and breeder reactors, "our domestic sacrifice appears to be for naught." On the other hand, environmen talists opposed to nuclear energy are cheered by the President's stand, al though some believe he didn't go far enough. "Clinch River," says Friends of the Earth, an environmental in terest group, "in its present, or altered form, is a symbol of a full speed com mercialization program, whether it is termed experimental or not." Nuclear critic Ralph Nader wasn't nearly so charitable as some other environmentalists and criticized Carter sharply for not addressing what he believes to be safety prob lems with existing nuclear power plants. Observes Nader of Carter's nuclear policy: "It represented a pullback from positions he took in the election campaign." D
plications are unclear, but asbestos fibers are known to be carcinogenic when inhaled. Minnesota, together with Wiscon sin and Michigan, took the company to court. In 1974 a U.S. circuit court of appeals ordered Minnesota and Reserve Mining to agree on a land disposal site, but didn't set a date to stop the lake dumping. Following further court action (C&EN, Aug. 23, 1976, page 16), Reserve Mining pro posed a disposal site 7 miles inland from Silver Bay. The company would build a 5.8-square-mile basin, using coarse tailings to construct dams. Fine tailings would be pumped to the basin by pipeline. There would be no discharge to Lake Superior or its tributaries. The project would cost about $350 million. The state's Department of Natural Resources and the Pollution Control Agency refused to issue permits, on grounds that the site presented en vironmental and safety problems, and suggested another location farther
inland. Reserve Mining said that the state's recommendation was eco nomically unfeasible, and that it would close down the taconite oper ation if it didn't get the permits. In January a special three-judge state court ruled that the agencies acted illegally in denying the permit; it was that ruling that the state Supreme Court affirmed. D
Hawaii work may lead to malaria vaccine Researchers at the University of Ha waii have successfully immunized monkeys against the deadliest form of human malaria, an important ad vance in developing a human malaria vaccine. Dr. Wasim A. Siddiqui of the University of Hawaii's school of medicine prepared an experimental vaccine from a culture of the malaria parasite transmitted by the anopheles mosquito. Siddiqui's antigen is effective against the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. He ad ministered the antigen twice at three-week intervals to each of three aotus monkeys. Three weeks later, these monkeys and two controls that had received no antigen treatment were challenged with P. falciparum parasites. Both of the control mon keys died within 13 days of injection with the malaria parasites. All three of the immunized monkeys are still alive and showed no detectable signs of parasite invasion one month after they were treated. There is at present no vaccine against malaria. Instead, the disease is treated and controlled by destroy ing the mosquitoes that carry the parasite to man and by using antimalaria drugs. But malaria cases have been increasing in some countries in recent years as more of the mosquito carriers become resistant to pesti cides, and the parasites themselves develop resistance to antimalaria drugs. The Agency for International Development, which supported Sid diqui's work, estimates there are about 125 million cases of malaria a year now, including 90 million cases a year in tropical Africa, where about 1 million children die of the disease each year. AID is the primary coor dinator of international research on malaria immunization. It currently supports seven projects, including the one at the University of Hawaii. Dr. Miloslav Rechcigl, chief of re search at AID, calls the monkey im munization a breakthrough in the development of a malaria vaccine for humans, but he cautions that there is still much work that needs to be done.
"This experiment demonstrated that it can be done," he says. "Now we need to focus on the engineering and safety aspects" of developing a fullscale vaccine. For instance, the adju vant used to enhance the effective ness of the antigen in the monkey experiments is not one that can be used safely in humans, so another adjuvant must be developed. Siddiqui's success comes about a year after another major advance in the development of a malaria vaccine for humans, also coming out of the AID-sponsored research. This was the development by Dr. William Trager of Rockefeller University of a method of culturing the human malaria par asite, P. falciparum, using human blood as the growth medium. To gether, these two findings give re searchers an effective animal model that can be used to further develop a vaccine, Rechcigl explains, greatly speeding up development. D
Fiber earnings begin to show new life The apparent bad earnings news in the first quarter from two top U.S. fiber producers is not as bad as it looks. Underneath, the potentially huge profits engine in fibers seems to be turning over at long last. Du Pont's earnings per share for first-quarter 1977 fell about 14% from levels for the same period in 1976, says chairman Irving S. Shapiro. Earnings for first-quarter 1977 were $2.40 per share on record sales of $2.3 billion. During the first quarter of 1976, they were $2.80 per share. They still are about 28% above fourth-quarter 1976 earnings. Shapiro told Du Pont's annual meeting. "Al though the results for January and February suffered from the severe winter weather, March came on strong and the first quarter turned out to be a distinct improvement over the closing quarter of last year." He indicates that he is encouraged by an improvement in the company's man-made fibers business. After an operating loss since the middle of last year, fibers took a clear upturn and finished the quarter with a nominal profit, he says. Celanese reports first-quarter earnings that are down sharply from levels of one year ago. John D. McComber, president and chief op erating officer, told the company's annual meeting in Charlotte, N.C., that earnings were 74 cents a share for first-quarter 1977, compared to $1.67 per share for first-quarter 1976. The low earnings for this year's first quarter are a continuation of weak
Shapiro: a distinct improvement
earnings for the third and fourth quarters of 1976—83 cents and 62 cents per share, respectively. Total sales were 3% lower than in firstquarter 1976, down from $562 million to $546 million. However, net income was down 54% from $24 million to $11 million. The fibers group was considerably weaker than a year ago with polyes ter/nylon earning 10 cents as against 42 cents last year, and cellulosics earning 7 cents this year compared to 31 cents the first quarter of last year. Non-U.S. fibers lost 42 cents per share for the first quarter in 1977. Last year's first quarter saw it break even. This brought the total fibers group to a 15-cent loss compared with a 73-cent gain for the corresponding period in 1976. McComber told the meeting that the company is seeing a turnaround despite the poor earnings showing for this quarter. A full two thirds of the earnings were generated in March and he is expecting upward trends to continue. Π
Soviet dissidents plan international seminar If all goes according to plan, more than 20 noted scientists from the U.S., Canada, France, and Sweden, and some 50 to 60 Soviet scientists— including Nobel Laureates George Wald of the U.S., Alfred Kastler of France, and Andrei Sakharov of the U.S.S.R.—will gather this week in a cramped private apartment in Mos cow for a highly unusual international scientific seminar. The seminar, to be held April 18 to 21, is described by its organizers as an attempt to help break the scientific isolation of dissident Soviet scientists, including both "refuseniks"—Jewish scientists refused permission to emi grate—and human rights activists. Entitled "The Many Body Problem April 18, 1977 C&EN
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