Sweden in the Atomic Age
HAMORI, LASZLO
By Laszlo Hamori Sweden in the Atomic Age Vitally dependent on atomic energy for its economy, Sweden leads the way in peaceful application of the atom STOCKHOLM SWEDEN needs atomic power....
...Sweden discovered the atomic "secret," without the use of spies, a long time ago...
...Sweden has not yet taken this step...
...In 1958, the Atomic Energy Corporation—owned jointly by the state (four-sevenths) and the big industrial concerns (three-sevenths)—received a state subsidy of 130 million Swedish crowns ($26 million...
...Since 1954, an experimental atomic reactor—built of Swedish materials according to Swedish construction plans—has been in operation in a suburb of Stockholm...
...The chief of the Swedish defense forces wrote at the beginning of this year: "As far as we are concerned, Sweden can have its own atomic weapons by 1960, if we allot a small, gradually increasing portion of our defense budget to this purpose...
...But there is also a small but highly active group which is against atomic armament...
...By Laszlo Hamori Sweden in the Atomic Age Vitally dependent on atomic energy for its economy, Sweden leads the way in peaceful application of the atom STOCKHOLM SWEDEN needs atomic power...
...Today, Kaj Siegbahn and Per Ohlin of Uppsala University, Hannes Alfven of the Stockholm Institute of Technology, and Sigward Eklund, Secretary General of the UN Atomic Conference in Geneva, form the nucleus of a group of experts of the first rank...
...The uranium used in the reactors turns into plutonium after a certain period of use, but plutonium can also be created by faster processes which are known here...
...A third reactor, the biggest to date, is being built under a mountain, in a vast cavern blasted out of the rock, in Farsta, another suburb of Stockholm...
...Anybody can visit the construction sites, wander through the subterranean halls, visit the reactors or study the construction plans...
...Sweden already possesses a small plutonium reserve...
...It is slated to start operations in 1960...
...Sweden does not believe in atomic secrecy...
...Nevertheless, the Swiss decision for atomic armament has made a big impression here...
...Plutonium is the active element in "ordinary" atomic bombs...
...But a considered estimate is two billion Swedish crowns ($400 million)—a lot for a country with a population of about seven million people...
...This figure does not include the money spent by the universities, the Military Research Institute and the private industrial laboratories...
...This reactor will supply 12,000 apartments with electricity as well as warm-water heat...
...It is the prototype of a projected series-the next one will be called "Eve"—for various parts of Sweden...
...The year 1960 is also the target date for another atomic power station, "Adam," with a capacity of 100,000 kws, which will be built near Vasteras, an industrial town in central Sweden...
...If imported fuels cannot soon be replaced by atomic energy, at least in part, Sweden will have to lower its high standard of living...
...Thanks to Hitler, Swedish atomic research gained a number of eminent scientists, among them Lise Meitner of the Max Planck Institute in Berlin and Nobel Prize-winner Professor George Hevesy, a collaborator of Niels Bohr in Copenhagen...
...And a second reactor, with a capacity of 30,000 kws, is under construction in Studsvik, some 70 miles south of Stockholm...
...Since last June's Parliamentary elections, which saw the Government's majority reduced, neither the Social Democrats nor the Opposition have dared tackle this ticklish question...
...And, since 72-year-old Foreign Minister Osten Unden, the most vocal foe of nuclear weapons, will retire one of these days, the question of whether Sweden will become an atomic power has only been postponed...
...The large majority of the ruling Social Democrats, as well as the bourgeois Opposition, agree that Sweden needs atomic weapons...
...Thus, Sweden could easily begin to manufacture its own atomic weapons...
...Nobody knows exactly how much Sweden has spent on atomic research and construction during the past 15 years...
...Last year, the uranium factory in Kvarntorp produced only ten tons of pure uranium, but the new factory in Billinge has a yearly capacity of 120 tons...
...By 1960, Sweden will have at least 200,000 kws in atomic power and heat for 12,000 apartments...
...Although highly industrialized, it produces no hard coal or oil, and its water-power reserves are almost completely harnessed...
...once the big reactors are in operation, this reserve will increase rapidly...
...Sweden's central mountains are rich in uranium-bearing slate, and, though the uranium content is not as rich as that of U.S...
...As early as the Second World War, the Swedes were concentrating heavily on atomic research, not for military but for economic reasons...
...or Canadian fields, there is enough to make exploitation worthwhile...
...R 3," as it has been called, will be the world's first atomic power station which also provides heat...
...The Swedish Atomic Energy Corporation employs some 200 scientists and over 400 technicians...
Vol. 41 • September 1958 • No. 33
