1954-02-20

FRY S CRUNCHIF

LEE JONES ROUSSE É DO 276

WHITE HORSE NEWS

Monday, 8th February, 1984

The Regimental Newspaper of fat Battalion The King's Raghwest

TÔNG LONG

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY

DRY & CRUNCHIE

No, Vol. 1.

EIGHT KINGSMEN IN FINALS NEWS FROM_B_COMPANY

(BY OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTI

I was fortunate, on Thursday 21st, in that I was able to attend the final of the loog Kong Land Forces Open Individual boxing cham- plonaḥips

Pirst and foremost I must acclaim the Batisilon team for their great showing, for they #gured in no less than seven of the ten finsky, lu fact the contestants in the frulher-wright boul were both Kingemen

Deja vi artan 1 TABOULE

Inila difeen beteren Cheye w dywanie, and phy stently matej ser el totes bar dvantage. Comy was by the the briberyllet kui les pilomet Šta "suga reymiał to do kang tuë tha anajayjay The Bakh. He may consist le

Our hat_report_was written Jibt du vra mica Bring the Annual Mage Couros. This combined with Xan New Tor, Guarda and Dalben somewhat awwded thố Company's digwira weyim, bet ne bave nevertheles Managvà Le carry out a few domINĖS SVINĒL

Fiji, bowerte, det, kan opt» Įkat) bang te makende Kạn Krwi Brule the Oneme Mucher who with Ken Jharon 14 will,

Haul Langton 106 WOE front and S

Laba wa Tha zile pad

Penekanan de venne promas sem. echnowledged to be hip, and

termekably tělo The Thới để

---------t

Kua

and No. 4 Trevon were at man belly we work die

Balle Betel at Bal lee the The large_be

The vili poveland a vary buy Navs bocion A. C. and Ko Caye and even carter media | lực dưr in which, i Argument) with D, C, ww] Fakte wäre Kan Kelly's volante we new willing the saport } impersonations DE A TIRANTY ANÁ

|| Melide |

A new watt) • the vi

Padre-Turned-Editor

Needs

A Drawer

By TOM EYTON

for

20 1954,

WHAT MAKES AN ATOM BOMB-CHAPTER 2

Mysterious Process Turns Uranium Into Plutonium

E have seen where uranium ore comes from and how we go about obtain- ing it. Now lot

ยะ Bee what we do with it after we get it.

By GORDON DEAN

Chairman, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, 1950-1953

ment has built

uranium country.

Rigid Control

When

your ore

Chemical Baths

So back the

graphile and, uranium which is „sevărat · storeys "high and is known, appropriately enough, as a "nuclear reactor.

The reaction which occurs in a nuclear reactor diftore from a chemical reaction in that it in- volves, not such "large" particles of matter as molecules and the outer shells of atoms, but a

sther

the hard, unimaginably minute inner core of an atom known, as its

nucleus, about which the

around

the

Sun,

the

which the alchemists sought so us eny that the nearest depot is where it is routed with salt at long in vain. The problem the one at Durango, Colorado, temperatures of up to 1,000 B. here, then, is to It is a long and intricate operated by the Vanadium Cor percolated with water, dissolved head into gold-butum change-not route that uranium must poration of America under in acid, heated and reheated, into plutonium. travel from the mines of Commission contract,

dissolved and redissolved, drieti the Belgian Congo, North- It is your job to get your ore and redried. Ultimately, after To see how this is done, let

to Durango. Let Africa,

us say orn Canada, South

you several days of this, the uranium us return to the slightly morn outer particles revolve as planets haul it by truck, first across the emerges in the form of a fine than, two pounds of aul the Colorado plateau to dry dirt roads that

brown This is the world of the Han- crisscross grayish-black powder that is a oxide that has emerged from the secret locations where the windswept plateau, and compound of uranium and oxy- your ton of ore. Brown oxide ford process, of the nuclear atomic bombs are stored. Anally along one of the new gen. It is called "black oxide." is a simple chemical compound. of the proton and neutron, par- It is the world chain reaction. It is also an expensive one. paved highways the Govern. The yellow of the carnouto Is It consists of one part of ticies of

so small that to open up the gone.

uranium bound chemically

matter to more than a hundred million of More than three-fourths

two parts of

oxygen. But, so them would not make Out of your original ten of long as

a speck of all the money and mate-

the oxygen is present, large enough for the human eve ore we now have left only the uranium cannot be used to rials and skills that

little more than two pounds of

to see. And it is the world of produce either "235" Amerien has invested in

material consisting of uranium, plutonium.

or the physicist and radoci and the oxygen the men of science who her atomic energy pro-

oxygen, and some impurities. cannot

Now although we have some supplanting it

be removed except by lessly probe the mysteries of the пика Caplain Northcolt HAT newspaper

arrives at A regular contributor to the gramme has gone to build

with something nuclei of atoms, and whose thing which approximates pure else. weighed, as much copy us possibile, but isn't worth

paper is Corporal Josah doncs, up the plants and labors. Durango, it is first

searches first produced uranium it is not anywhere sampled, and assayed. was a sniper tories that uranium must ass

This a cartoonist who Now most of his men are a little shy.

to serve the

ao often a knowledge that every so rending.

They bring their modest efforts in Korea. Contributions arc

Dssay determines the uranium near pure enough

uranium-238 nucleus will split to his offico only to lose their varied.

puss through along the way content, and it One story gave very

is very precise purposes for which the Atomic

in two, releasing neutron "bul- nerve at the last minute and useful hints to anyone wishing| 10 a bomb. This is the because it not only determines Exergy Commission wants it. It

Icta" about one contain only

which, if

if they can be made The story, poem or cartoon

table 10,000] atomic energy transport a

to strike other "236" atoms, will production the price that is paid to you, but

Also forms the basis for the per cent of impurities--boron, thot was to have been boldly miles, whilst the RAEC sergeant | line.

brown oxide in turn cause these to split in this is more strict accounting that is

for example-but thinist Into the editor's hunds writes on local surroundings.

kept of

This is the nuclear chain the uranium along the rest of its than enough to make it useless goes to the chemical baths, and two. In imidly

this time it emerges slipped under

In some ways it is simi- way to the bomb stockpiles. the

as a light reaction-the process upon which door. Once there,

рго- green powder known as "green the entire atomic energy it either

lar to the production lines

You are paid for your ore no- reviches Captain Northeott's

salt." The oxygen is gone and gramme is built. that lead from the Mesabi cording to The amount of tray or is swept up with the

iron

So the black oxide is shipped in its place le fluorine To of northern uranium it contains. In addition on to the next stage in the pro- a rough idea of how bat-

range dust by an enthusiastic

Minnesota to your kitchen to the price paid to you for your

recall that, of all the elementa refrigerator, and from the are, you are also paid an allow duction chala where the much this operation is, one need only ance to cover the cost of haul- harder job of pulling away the Texas oil fields to the gaso- Ing it to Durango and an allow elements that cling so tenacious, in the world, fluorine is prob

ably the most corrosive. It will In many ways

we can think line tank of your car. But ance to cover the cost of devely to uranium is begun For dissolve glas, sarverely corrode of this reaction as a nuclear fire- in many other

this operation, your uranium most metals, including stainless In fact, people who work with ways it is loping your mine. And if your * completely different, unlike mine is a new one, you may may be sent to the Commission's steel, and ignite all organic ma- reactors often refer to them as

also be paid a bonus of from now Feed Materials Processing $1.50(U.S.) to $3.50 per pound of uranium for the first thousand

pounds you deliver. Since, the price paid per pound is always at least equal to the bonus, you can see that it is possible to receive as much as than $70,000 for ore containing ten thousand pounds cf uranium.

re-

only were, editor.

Think how many people make marks like that. They are quite sure they could run a newspaper easily enough; after all, there is nothing to it. just answer the telephone, give instructions lo chain- smoking reporters, ani everything in the garden is lovely.

Hongkong-born

Le man

The A small room, the end Captain

The White florse News has a special vice in the King's Now at least one man in Camp. Hongkong knows that it is section

of a partitioned Nissen not so simple as all that. His hut, is specially reserved for Here the 17242314 is Captain J. A. F. Captain Northeott. Northcott, MA, Chaplain of Chy Desk is found in the shape of une Arty issue roll-lop the 1st Battalion, The King's table.

The editor's chair is a Regiment. He knows just plain board bench. how diffie lt it is to be editor of a newspaper because he in at this moment trying his hand at the job without previous experience.

The office boasts a cupboard leuns against a wall. which Whether this was 10 support d wall or the cupboard I couli'n't tell. And a tin chimney with the Captal Northcoti.

climbs

up the whitewashed help of plenty of ruld towels, is

wall. The office equipment of the White Horses

consists of

portable type- the Regimental paper of

writer and, a few books. Al King's Regiment,

It has Captain Northcott wants

now

editor News,

is a drawer,

His

Now for a few words about lmost le-handed and who mxlestly gives all credit to founder. Captain Davis

Northcatt is 20 and was born in Hongkong. father was on Army Chaplain for 20 years in the Colony. His previous newspaper experience was limited to being one of a committee

of eight buys who a school paper at Gibbs Preparatory School.

ran

1 Jeutenant,

anything else that is done in industry and unlike any thing else that has been done before in the world.

ever

More Valuable

or more

аль

the atomic energy pro-

for gramme.

diments

Nuclear Fire

needa no oxygen--only, neutrons

Although the process for pro- unlike a Processing...

and

But, just like a chemical fire, this nuclear fire produces heat and to keep the reactor from melting, it must constantly be cooled by water flowing through

crevices,

Centre at Fernald, in South- ferials such as wood, clothing, nuclear "ovena" in which they western Ohio, or it may go to many plastics, and oll. It will "cook" uranlum. But the "fire" one of the great chemical plants even react with water, and if it that is raging inside is not at which sprawl over the Industrial is introduced into overly moist, ali like an ordinary cosal

confined air, it will explode chemical fre. For one thing. It areas of our Midwestern cities.

violently.

to make it go. chemical

Bro, you can't In August 1942 he joined the

and A delicate ducing it is

see or hear it. The billions of Goldstream Guards. A year

are potentially hazardous one, green miniature explosions later he was commissioned and

salt itself in No matter to which location

a stable, relative- small and so dispersed among In served

Germany

ly harmless compound. It is of the uranium and graphite that After you have left your ore your uranium is shipped, the very great value to the atomic they cannot be detected by any After the war bei

The Atomic Energy Com- went to Christ Church, Oxford, mission is after something at Durango, it is under the rigid things that are done to it are energy programme, for it marks human sense of hearing.

control of the Atomic Energy generally the same. where be gained

Let us say, the starting point in the manu- history far more valuable than

Commission. Most of the time then, that it goes the pro The

degree. Then followed

facture of both plutonium and two gold. It is after the mate- the uranium it contains actual- cessing centre at Fernald. The uranium-235. It is here, there four pages.

is well printed and

years as curate of Si Martins

riala, known to scientists as ly in private hands-those of the buildings

equipment in the Elelds.. contains sport, news, curlochs,

"fissionable," that pack contractors to the Commission, Fernald are owned by the Comfore, that the road divides, one

fork leading to the bomb stock editorials, poems and advertise- inents. It has one other attrac-

who do the processing work- mission, but the operation It was in 1952 that he de- more energy into a pound

is piles via the but the Government never loses carried on by a private

great plutonium - is given away free. The paper was started by

footsteps and went into the sand tons.

River, and the other vin the of its own control

pany of Ohio, employed by the Local Arms Auance the paper Army as a Padre. Diver

when Davis Cap'ain

Government

huge uranium-236 plonta

There is another important. this to perform Hong- inck 10

with ther advertisements.

To get

Oak

Ridge, these substances the

and difference between Paducah,

a nuclear specific job. Kera Jag yout These

not only

He pay for the

has no great plans for Commission must taker ora in

Portsmouth.

Are and an ordinary chemical with the advance party, and so blocks needed brighten up future of his new-found

carload 'quantities, and send it work the pages with photographs but terest he get to

the but hopes to keep the on speedily end

Journey from which

nuclear reaction of in that by the tune the rest of also give the paper a true-to- Kingsmen well informed emerge only minuscule amounts

one direction visible, intensely lethal rays that the Regiment returned the first fe effect. The advertisments through The White

Let us say that the ore, you of weighing and analysing, and uranium goes in

other: On Horse of material measured In terms old at Durango, the lowest, the results must check with the and half in the

must be, guarded against, by a of grams. To gain a feeling for grade the Commission will buy last report from Durango or on purely arbitrary basis, for both great shell of lead and concrete, what this journey is like, let us This means that; a: ton of it investigation Is set in motion are equally important, let us many feet thick, select a particular quantity, say contains two pounds of uranium.

Immediately to a ton, of are and follow it all metal. The first job, then, is to they differ.

what you see when "plutonium."

you look at reactor the for- the way through-seeing what isolate that urandum and” ref happens to it and glimpsing the move it from

Once these preliminary steps the clay, sand-

To produce plutonium, the ward face of the lead and can- facilities it passes through along store,

crete shell, punctured by hun- are out of the way, however, material that is needed is pure dreds of small, round holes, and conglomeration' other materials which comprise world of bursing acid that it so rather simply obtained

your black oxide re-enters the uranium metal. This metal is about the size of a silver dollar the rest of the ore.

Came

kung

Military Slant

com-

elded to follow in his father's! than, coal does into a thou- sight of it and never lets it out pany, the National Lead Com- Plants at Hanford and Savannah a network of thousands of tiny

edition was ready to welcome are given a military slant, News,

men to the

the

Colony.

from a

Apart

message

of welcome the

first edition also

had

map of

Dodwells Fudge, the King's Camp.

Captain Davis

is a busy man.

It was too much

for him to cope

with his Own

duties

the

and at sunt time

the paper. So ho

looked

for a

His

around

SUCCESBOT.

fell

cyen

the 29-

upon year-old Padre, He quickly of [ered Captain Northcott cipareite and the editorship. Captain North cott declined the responsitutes of

news- running a paper but ac- cepted the cigarette and stayed to chat with the #lib Captain Davis, who told how very cosy it was to run a simple thing like a four-page

camp paper.

Editor Northcott at his bench. (Army PRO Picture)

fortnightly

the way.

First Job

Here your black oxide is put through the usual initial steps

der

find

the

Let us say that half of your by and that is the productions

out why rst follow the route marked uranium and sewn Unding tho

pow

Nom

removes

from

This

core,

fed at loading

Control Room

Now man's principal interest

Let us say some ore belongs Let us say you found to you.

The effort to do this begins recently left At Durango. If green salt in one clean chemical into which the cylindrical cans

of uranium are the it high on a mesa in the lonely right at Durango, for the Gov- you could catch a glimpse of it operation that distances of the

at óno quiet moment along this fluorine Colorado ernment does not, want to pay

the salt and me. you leaves

pure uranium In it ploteau · Let us say that you to ship any more of the ma- segment of its molten blob at the bottom steised out a claim, just you terial than is necessary to the Would see that

which bad arrived at the

at the reaction vessel. After would if you found gold or next stage in the production

WDB now bright has cooled, you can now

for silvet or copper. Although the chain. The methods used to re- Femald

are orange, But this would be only the first time see your uranium ore belongs to you-not to the cover uranium from ore

all its pristine beauty Government-you cannot sell

cot unique in industry. But, a stage, and if you waited unil in or give it to anyone except even so, it is no easy job, partit Anally emerged, the Atomic Energy Commission cularly when one remembers would be a deep brown,

someone approved

uranium is by the that

um is senttered material, all in the form of and not unlike nickel in coleur. Commission

through the ore in microscople fine powder, is called brown particles smaller than the point oxide," and it differs from black www oxide not only in its chemical not the head-of a pin. As the first step in the pro-composition, but also in cessing chain, your ore is placed other very important respect: By

But the Commission wants" [1--

the

to the

TWO BRITONS TURN OUT A REVOLUTIONARY

Paris.

FIGHTER

From Group Captain Hugh Dundas

its colour bright, very heavy, hard ma

This lerial not unike lead in weight

020

that!

is to centro) the reaction so that it proceeds to just the right level to produce the most plu- tonium possible. He does this, with the aid of machinery, by manipulating me

bare atomic fire gets too hot, he Your uranium, although mild- ing sufficient neutrons to slow pushes the bars in, thus absorb- ly toxic If inhaled or eaten in down the reaction, If

the fire

Safe To Touch

metallic

neutrons.

When

let

Ted

thirt

badly, and will buy it from you even though it contains only two pounds of uranium to each in a giant crushing machine. now the uranium in It is pure. ton of ore.

From there it goes to a grinder One might think from the the form of dust, is now safe to gets too cold, he can remedy So you decide to sell your ore where it is ground into small preceding article we now had a touch and hold. And it is not that by pulling the bars out, to the nearest ore-buying depot, particles similar

finest chemical compound containing unlike many other metals, such of which there are fifteen in grains of kand. Then it pro- pure uranium and that we wero as silver, lead, and gold, except the Colorado plateau area. Let coeds into an industrial Inferno close to the end of our journey. that it will form a

To see how this is done, graylah, us walk into the control room We are not. Actually, we have black rust very rapidly along from which man's influence over hardly begun. Our uranium, its surface if exposed to the air the nuclear reaction is directed. for example, has not yet even for any appreciable period of If you have ever been inside seen any of the great atomic time.

television control booth, you will energy plants at such places:

ca at

have a

idea of what this a rough Oak Ridge, Hanford, Savannah Now the chemist is through control room la River, or Paducah. The reason with your uranium for a while, walls consut of

like. Three banks of "Nothing

for this is that natural uranium, and it passes into the hands of instruments with to it, old boy." sald Captain Davis, Captain

even in lis purest form, cannot, the metallurgist and machinist, and

green

lights, dials with be used in a bomb, Northcott was convinced; ac

What the Here, with other urandum, it is har

interminably Commission wants for a bomb cast into ingots, rolled into long and mechanical

long harde soaked pencils cepted the job, and was later to write the following editorial

are the flisionable materials rods, and then cut into relative draw lines, day in

day in and day out, coming along fine, In ‚fact, that uranium can be made ...."Finally the day arrives

to ly short cylindrical bars."

prevent deterior on through Before one wall tire is a panel on rolling meats of graph paper, when you are expected in

there was confidence oozing from produce, N my plane to Paris last you

both

the formation of rust, it is. Hongkong...Are

They seemed to men.

-at instrumenta.arranged in front ed as soon as possible into tight of a chair week were two of the up. Ales. with your neatly set

Britain already owes n' J 1

privato venture, enjoy being out on their own,

loviding much Britain's marked with

fitting aluminium onsite like an organ console. your instructions best brains in

Dr Hooker ("I like thèse en-

now ready fortie : pfittonium) tani for the printers? No, you are aeroplane industry, on their lot to these two working as unsubsidised by the Ministry of Supply. The that has not com- Petter de mended itself

Here, for the arst time in the Air gines," he said as we took off, your rooin Dodwells way to introduce their half- team. For Ridge with a wet towel around size, revolutionary fighter signed the record-breaking Ministry. The air marshals And so he should they were -There are two of these. One Let us any that one ột yours?

interesting side is a very special your head,

Canberra jet bomber, and decided to stick to their ordera his) gave an

kind of two pounds of uranium has in a white durs coat, and maybe a man or', two plane to Supreme Allied "Your batman has long since Headquarters."

as uranium- found its way into a can destined Hooker designed the Avon. for the bigger,

girl. They are watching the given up whistling while ho

very sparingly less than one at Hanford.

the works. The Chinese men who The two men hope that Canberra. outstanding But it will probably commend, liner:

cent,in normaal

chals. Occasionally ond itself to the North Atlantic

uran started scratching paint off 'your'

For a time the big plane, häid metal. Our problem here is When it arrives at Handford, touch a level or a button - Oc- un hut have long since realised the new plane, the Gnat, performance.

Treaty countries, "They

will apak belefty you are the mad officer who will end Britain's

and Their new half-size fight having to order fighters coating none of its four engines work feet this 2302 out, and no or your wantum addy for boe casionally

{zlysterie throws things at the when Europe's

bankrupt fight-

around £70,000 plane which Ing. When one engine caught diary Industrial methods, can of the exciting?

tod, because 1935 and nor- bus panta ota

餓康

・of paper. will be less than half never get delivered."

fire a device for cutting out all mal uranium react to all chemi- way to bomb the weight and about one The Gnat la expected to cost operated only in the case of a

electrical circulis normally cal processes in the same way, be tran

| Into the The newly-formed paper has Let me introduce you to third the price of the con around £25,000 and

out in of its own woord. The other flasionable material not had the same disastrous them, Genius No. 1. la Mrventional planes now on simplicity will make it sear

phitanium. This does not effect on the rest of the King W. B. Petter, chief design order, but will have a0-

test plint Hill Pegg

nature, at all: not

Samotint.wo ‹men, contributions 4 without too er of the Folland Aircraft equal performance îí every

sere

they are trying to do their 'duty."

men. They managed to send

er policy.

the

Special Kind

production plant, me

seale

engine which gives the Hunters and re complicated light on the mudflat forced land- uranium known

ing of the Bristol Britannia' air-]235; which occurs naturally but for one of the plutonium plankets and thờ grupha wilk

-much fuss. After all, the Army Company. Genius No. 2 is respect. "

has no time for femperament Dr Blandy Hooker, director

or for long-haired posts, You

may write poury but hair will and chiot engineer of

ibe Regimental --length, 65 Bristol Aeroplane! Car

its

tter

VIDTOČNIER BE Speedễ. The proto How:"Building, and will By

mok in anothing-Plas

Sifruto marALODE OF Write" aósne",

don the In party's like; and to, the uninitiated, ik in in electronie Haze be cannot

Kby: Göndow DWTS)

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