Atomic-Powered
Industrial Trucks.-Atomic propulsion of electric industrial trucks is one of many engineering advances in materials handling expected during the next few years, B. I. Ulinski, Director of Engineering, Automatic Transportation Company, Chicago, said recently.
Ulinski, who attended the Iron & Steel exposition in Cleveland, believes that with the present pace of progress in atomic energy research related to industrial applications, revolutionary developments in propulsion power supply can be expected.
He explained that the splitting of uranium 23.5 atoms creates a number of radioactive fission by-products, such as iodine, barium, zirconium, cerium, etc. These by-products are really "ashes" piling up in the waste tanks of plutonium works such as those at Hartford.
Electrical power can be generated directly from such radioactive materials, Ulinski said. "If a pure beta emitter is properly positioned and insulated in a vacuum tube, it will build up to a high voltage as it loses its beta particles (electrons) ," he pointed out. "While the electric power tapped from such an experimental conversion unit is small, probably a watt, it is nevertheless useful, and it will keep on generating for years without refueling or maintenance."
Ulinski said this radioactive process of generating electric power is similar to the common photo-electric cell principle, used in such devices as light meters.
In the photo-cell process, he continued, the light striking photosensitive material releases electrons from its surface, causing a current to be generated.
This current, while small, is controlled by the intensity of the light striking the photosensitive material and registers its value on the light meter.
"Similarly, the current generated by a beta emitter can also power small instruments," he said.
According to Ulinski, it is not too far fetched to expect, in the coming decade, revolutionary developments in the conversion of nuclear fission products into "tremendous amounts of electrical current.
Studies of the many problems connected with the use of fission products in power generation are now underway.
"Conventional storage batteries for industrial uses, such as powering electric material handling tractors, can very well be replaced by atomic conversion units," he asserted.
Ulinski also pointed out that it is already possible to convert carbon to electrical energy through the medium of heated reaction fuel coils. By proper coordination of today's scientific discoveries, it should not be too difficult to convert nuclear energy to electrical energy without resorting to intermediate mechanical means, he added.
One solution to major steel handling problems-that of handling bigger and heavier coils-will be the construction of lighter tractors, embodying straddle-type design, Ulinski said. These will be equipped with a retractable ram.
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