MEMBERS' FORUM AN INTRODUCTION TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE ABSTRACTS AND The REPORT LITERATURE OF NUCLEAR ENERGY Available to Purchase

In a lecture before the National Industrial Conference Board, New York, on 29th October, 1953, Sir Christopher Hinton—then Deputy Controller of Atomic Energy (Production), now Managing Director, U.K. Atomic Energy Authority, Industrial Group—told his audience: ‘We hope that in a few years' time we may be able, after successful pilot operation, to encourage industry to build thermal reactors … for large‐scale power production’. In February, 1955, H.M. Government issued a White Paper A programme of nuclear power (Cmd. 9389) in which Sir Christopher's early hopes became official policy, in the following terms: ‘The [nuclear power] stations will be built in the normal way by private industry for the Electricity Authorities, who will own and operate them’ (para. 23). The Industrial Group's first prototype thermal reactors are nearing completion already at Calder Hall, near Sellafield, Cumberland. Representatives from four large industrial consortiums, after receiving intensive training courses in reactor technology, have now returned from the U.K.A.E.A. to their firms to set up design departments for development of the basic Calder prototype. The first two of these privately built power stations are expected to begin construction in 1957.