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
g_
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
66
Needs
A Drawer
By TOM EYTON
for
20 1954,
WHAT MAKES AN ATOM BOMB-CHAPTER 2
Mysterious Process Turns Uranium Into Plutonium
W
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
st
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.
4.
10
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,
Б
09
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
*T
needa no oxygen--only, neutrons
Although the process for pro- unlike a Processing...
and
50
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
D
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.
he
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
at
Let us say that half of your by and that is the productions
a
out why rst follow the route marked uranium and sewn Unding tho
pow
Nom
removes
from
ol
This
13
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
cr
But the Commission wants" [1--
the
to the
TWO BRITONS TURN OUT A REVOLUTIONARY
Paris.
FIGHTER
From Group Captain Hugh Dundas
a
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
a
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
In
nt
sere
they are trying to do their 'duty."
men. They managed to send
ON
er policy.
to
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
Br
-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
A
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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