The Chemical World This Week WASHINGTON
JANUARY
27, 19 e 4
CONCENTRATES
• The big NASA liquid hydrogen supply contract for the Gulf Coast has gone to Air Products. The company beat out the Linde division of Union Carbide in the continued competition between the two for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's liquid hydrogen business (C&EN, Sept. 23, 1963, page 119). The contract—which, if all its options are exercised through 1970, will be worth some $19 millionrequires Air Products to be capable of producing up to 30 tons a day of liquid hydrogen by no later than mid-1965. NASA estimates its total Gulf Coast requirements for liquid hydrogen through 1970 at roughly 78 million pounds. Air Products, with an eye toward Mississippi Test Operation's liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen needs, gaseous nitrogen requirements at NASA's Michaud plant, and commercial markets in the area, plans to put up a large air separation plant as well as the liquid hydrogen plant at the site. • The U.S. chemical industry shows little optimism for any gains in the coming trade talks. In a brief filed with the Trade Information Committee last week, the Manufacturing Chemists' Association says essentially that the U.S. chemical industry has little to gain and much to lose by a reciprocal reduction in trade barriers. A tariff reduction of 50% abroad would do little to increase total U.S. chemical exports, it claims, but lowering U.S. duties by as much as 50% could do harm to many domestic products. Eliminating nontariff barriers in some foreign countries would be more helpful than tariff cuts, but this would not contribute materially to a general increase in exports. MCA stresses the need for U.S. negotiators to seek advice from industry representatives before and during negotiations. ( For more on trade, see page 29. ) • Department of Defense will hold a series of classified briefings to acquaint industry with DOD's shopping list. Chemical and biological industries will attend the first set of briefings during the first half of this year. Other invited industries for this session include nuclear products, arms and ammunition, electronics, and missiles. During the meetings, emphasis will be placed on projected shifts in development and procurement plans to meet the changing needs of the military over the next five years. Trends will be stressed rather than technical
details. All three military services and the Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering will participate in briefings. • The Commerce Department is looking at a new way to expand industrial research with government financial aid. The department is considering asking Congress to approve legislation which would authorize government assistance to industry associations to stimulate them to sponsor nonproprietary technical investigations. Last year, the Commerce Department sponsored a broad program to help spur wider use of new technology in the private sector of the economy (C&EN, Feb. 4, 1963, page 30). However, Congress refused to appropriate any money for it. ^ Diversification at the Hanford, Wash., atomic facility may ease the shock of the cutback in plutonium production ordered by the Atomic Energy Commission (C&EN, Jan. 20, page 25). AEC and General Electric, which has been the sole operating contractor at Hanford since 1946, have agreed to transfer contract work at Hanford to other contractors over a period of several years. According to AEC, this decision will open up the opportunity of transferring research work to a not-for-profit research organization which could seek an expanded scope of work from private organizations and other government agencies as well as AEC. It will also be possible to widen industrial participation by splitting up other work at Hanford. This, plus construction of an isotopes separation plant and sulfuric acid plant, could stimulate commercial diversification. • An earthquake could rupture bedrock near the site of a proposed atomic power plant at Bodega Head on California's northern seacoast, the Interior Department says in a report to the Atomic Energy Commission. AEC is considering an application from the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to build the proposed plant. Interior was requested by AEC to make an additional study after earlier geologic investigations uncovered a fault in the bedrock of the excavation for the plant. The proposed power plant also faces stiff opposition from California conservation groups (C&EN, July 22, 1963, page 23). JAN.
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