The Atom And The Ocean - free ebook by E. W. Seabrook Hull

The ATOM and the OCEAN

by E. W. Seabrook Hull U.S. ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION Division of Technical Information Understanding the Atom Series...

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The Understanding the Atom Series

Nuclear energy is playing a vital role in the life of every man, woman, and child in the United States today. In the years ahead it will affect increasingly all the peoples of the earth. It is essential that all Americans gain an understanding of this vital force if they are to discharge thoughtfully their responsibilities as citizens and if they are to realize fully the myriad benefits that nuclear energy offers them. The United States Atomic Energy Commission provides this booklet to help you

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Energy for Exploration

For this exploration, men need to put instruments, navigation beacons (see figures on pages 46 and 47 ), and other devices on the deep ocean floor, where they must operate for long periods of time unattended and with no external source of power. Radioisotope-powered generators, capitalizing on the energy of disintegrating radioactive atoms, are almost the only devices capable of fulfilling these requirements. [2] Man also wants to do productive work under the ocean, such as drilling seafloor oil

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Ocean Movements

Six ships checking the Gulf Stream’s course through the Atlantic Ocean over a 2-week period found the variations shown above. The infrared film photograph shows the edge of the Gulf Stream. The visible line between the Gulf Stream, which is on the right, and Labrador water is made by Sargassum weed concentrated at the interface. The ocean is constantly in motion—not just in the waves and tides that characterize its surface but in great currents that swirl between continents, moving (among other

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A Mix of Elements

The sea is a chemistry, too. Over 60 elements have been discovered in measurable amounts in solution or in suspension in the ocean. Many of these are in the form of salts, making seawater a highly efficient electrolyte, and a most corrosive fluid. The study of corrosion and techniques for combatting it is a continuous one in which nuclear energy already has a principal role. Because the sea is so much a chemistry, it is a potential source of minerals for the world’s growing industrial appetite.

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The Sea’s Interfaces

What of the interfaces of the sea? Above three-quarters of the globe, water and air are in constant contact, continually exchanging heat and moisture. This is a major factor in the making of weather and climate. The sea constantly feeds electricity into the atmosphere, primarily through the electron-scrubbing action of tiny popping bubbles at the sea surface. It also lifts tiny crystals of salt and the remains of microscopic sea creatures into the air. Perhaps these are the nuclei on which moist

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The Sea’s Resources

In summary, then, the ocean, the largest single geographical feature of our planet, is infinitely varied and infinitely complex. We are learning it bears on our day-to-day living in ways we never suspected. It is the largest resource of food for our exploding population, the largest resource of minerals with which to support the world’s burgeoning industries, the largest resource of energy, and, of course, it is the largest supply of water. It is mankind’s largest dumping ground for the wastes o

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Radionuclides in the Sea

Before we can follow the atom down into the sea, we must understand something about the potentials, both good and bad, of this incursion of one of our most advanced technologies into one of earth’s least understood environments. This adventurous probing has ramifications for studying both man-produced radioactivity in the sea and the ocean itself as an uncontaminated environment. Radionuclides (radioactive atoms) can find their way into the sea from natural radiation sources or from nuclear ener

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Research Projects

The AEC supports oceanographic research conducted by its own laboratories and by other federal agencies, as well as by non-government research scientists. The Environmental Sciences Branch of the Division of Biology and Medicine has begun the long and complex task of unraveling the mystery of the fate of radionuclides in the ocean. Valuable techniques have been developed for the intentional injection of radioisotopes into the sea for specific research. Scientists are now able to conduct investig

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Oceanographic Instruments

This radioisotope powered swimsuit heater uses plutonium-238 to produce 420 watts of heat. Water, heated by the decay of ²³⁸Pu, is pumped through plastic veins partially visible in the undergarment. The cylinder under the diver’s arm contains 4 capsules of ²³⁸Pu, and a battery-pump assembly is contained in the box at his feet. After preliminary tests at the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, the unit will be used in Sealab III, the Navy’s underwater research laboratory. The

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Environmental Safety Studies

The AEC Division of Reactor Development and Technology has supported extensive environmental studies to assess the safety of isotopic power sources (to be discussed later) in oceanic environments. One of the most important of these is being conducted by the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory at an ocean environmental testing complex near San Clemente Island off the coast of California, which includes a shore installation and a floating ocean platform. These studies are to determine seawater c

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The Atom at Work in the Sea

NUCLEAR REACTOR PROPULSION The transformation in undersea warfare tactics and national defense strategy effected by the introduction of nuclear-powered submarines is now well known. Navy submarines employing the latest reactors and fuel elements can stay at sea for more than 3 years without refueling. Polaris submarines on patrol remain submerged for 60 to 70 days. The nuclear submarine Triton , tracing Magellan’s route of 400 years earlier, traveled 36,000 miles under water, moving around the w

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Ocean Engineering

Considerable engineering experience has been derived from the work of federal agencies in development of the largest taut-moored instrumented buoy system ever deployed in the deep ocean. Developed by Ocean Science 81 Engineering, Inc., it is useful in observation and prediction of environmental changes. The system embodies substantial advances in design. It incorporates, among other features, an acoustically commanded underwater winch for adjustment of the mooring depth after the buoy is deploye

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Fresh Water from Seawater

In 1960 the chairman of the board of a large U. S. corporation made a fundamental policy decision for his company: Since the greatest critical need of man in the next decade would be fresh water, his company would begin working to produce large volumes of fresh water—including the development of methods for desalting seawater. His pioneering analysis proved to be prophetic. Throughout the world, more people are using more water for more purposes than ever before. Many areas of the world, includi

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Radiation Preservation of Seafood

The use of nuclear radiation for the preservation of food is a new process of particular importance for seafood. The ocean constitutes the world’s largest source of animal protein food. Yet the harvests of the sea can be stored safely, even with refrigeration, for far shorter periods than can most other foods. In many parts of the world, this tendency to spoil makes fish products available only to people who live near seacoasts. Many types of seafood, however, when exposed to radiation from radi

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Project Plowshare

Nuclear explosives are, among other things, large-scale, low-cost excavation devices. In this respect, with the proper pre-detonation study and engineering, they are ideally suited for massive earth-moving and “geological engineering” projects, including the construction of harbors and canals. The western coasts of three continents, Australia, Africa, and South America, are sparsely supplied with good harbors. A number of studies have been undertaken as to the feasibility of using nuclear explos

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A New Fram

Fridtjof Nansen Just about 70 years ago, the oceanographer and explorer, Dr. Fridtjof Nansen completed his famous voyage aboard the research vessel Fram , which remained locked in the Arctic ice pack for 3 years, drifting around the top of the world while the men aboard her studied the oceanography of the polar sea. Now the National Science Foundation has taken the first steps toward building a modern version of Fram for Arctic studies. This time the vessel will be an Arctic Drift Barge containi

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THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL OCEAN

The ocean is no longer an area of isolated scientific interest, nor merely a turbulent two-dimensional surface over which man conducts his commerce and occasionally fights his wars. In today’s world, the ocean has assumed its full third dimension. Men and women are going down into it to study, to play, to work, and, alas, sometimes to fight. As they go, they are taking atomic energy with them. In many instances, only the harnessed power in the nuclei of atoms permits them to penetrate the depths

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Books

The Bountiful Sea , Seabrook Hull, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 07632, 1964, 340 pp., $6.95. This Great and Wide Sea , R. E. Coker, Harper &amp; Row, New York 10016, 1962, 235 pp., $2.25 (paperback). Exploring the Secrets of the Sea , William J. Cromie, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 07632, 1962, 300 pp., $5.95. The Sea Around Us , Rachel L. Carson, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York 10016, 1961, 237 pp., $5.00 (hardback); $0.60 (paperback) from t

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Booklets

Oceanography Information Sources (Publication 1417), National Academy of Sciences—National Research Council, Washington, D. C. 20418, 1966, 38 pp., $1.50. A Reader’s Guide to Oceanography , Jan Hahn, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, August 1965 (revised periodically) 13 pp., free. The following booklets are available from the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. 20402: Undersea Vehicles for Oceanography (Pamphlet N

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Articles

Tools for the Ocean Depths, Fortune , LXXII: 213 (August 1965). Journey to Inner Space, Time , 86: 90 (September 17, 1965). Working for Weeks on the Sea Floor, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, National Geographic , 129: 498 (April 1966). Nucleonics , 24 (June 1966). This special issue on the use of the atom undersea contains the following articles of interest: Reactors: Key to Large Scale Underwater Operations, J. R. Wetch, 33. Undersea Role for Isotopic Power, K. E. Buck, 38. Radioisotopes in Oceanograph

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Motion Pictures

1000 Feet Deep for Science , 27 minutes, color, 1965. Produced by and available from Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Visual Communications Department, 3 Gateway Center, Box 2278, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15230. This film describes the Westinghouse Diving Saucer, which is a two-man laboratory used for underwater research. This is the saucer that is used by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and was featured in his motion picture World Without Sun . Available for loan without charge from the AEC Headquarter

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THE COVER

The ship on the cover is the trim Atlantis riding the waves about 200 miles south of Bermuda. The first craft built by the United States as an oceanographic research vessel, she traveled more than 1,200,000 miles across the seven seas for a period of 30 years. She “ran” over 6000 hydrographic stations and was used for innumerable dredging, coring, biological, physical, and acoustical research operations. After she was retired from active service at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Mas

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THE AUTHOR

E. W. SEABROOK HULL is an experienced writer and editor in technical and engineering fields. He is the author of The Bountiful Sea , published in 1964 by Prentice-Hall, and Plowshare , another booklet in this Understanding the Atom Series. He is the editor of Ocean Science News and editor and publisher of GeoMarine Technology ....

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