Salt Lake Telegram | 1951-12-14 | Page 1 | A-Age Tied to Success of Idaho Plant Tests

AAge Tied Pied to Success Of Idaho Plant Tests By Howard W. W Blakeslee I NEW NE YORK Dec 14 t Our I Our first atomic power power power steam steam-elec elec at Arco AiCO Ida is is expected i I in the first six months of 1952 I This will come fpm a new I kind of oC reactor a pile of con con- shielded crete-shielded uranium in which atoms split This reactor is housed in a very ordinary-looking ordinary building about the size of oC a large I church The building has been com com- comI completed for a year The reactor I inside it started only recently There arc are no details of any sort because this is one of oC the most secret reactors ever built and is I the most important This is the reactor which will show sho whether a theory is correct cor cor- The theory says you can split uranium atoms and get them to produce more plutonium atoms than the original number split You get more fuel than you burn You have for the first time started start ed a seemingly perpetual motion chain If this new reactor fails the prospects of an atomic age will vill fade until something besides a t splitting m-splitting o is discovered Uranium is too scarce to be a world power supply unless it can breed new fuel in this Arco Area re re- actor r Y