NEW ATOMIC WEAPONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26635, 4 December 1947, Page 5

NEW ATOMIC WEAPONS

PRODUCTION IN AMERICA NATURE NOT DISCLOSED Rec. 9 p.m. NEW YORK, Dec. 2. America is now producing new atomic weapons from both ui'anium and plutonium, said Mr David E. L. Lilienthal, chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission. He told the American Society of Mechanical Engineers at Atlantic City that “ bqth of these products are used for atomic weapons in current production and under design at the commission’s laboratories.”

Mr Lilienthal did not explain whether the new weapons are bombs such as dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki or represent a new military application of atomic power. Such details are classed as “ secret.”

The weapons are being assembled at the isolated Los Alamos (New Mexico) laboratories where the first bomb was produced. The Government has never confirmed any reports concerning the nature of the contents of atomic bombs which have been exploded in the past, but -it is known thar they can be made either of uranium 235 or of plutonium, a manmade element produced from uranium. Mr Lilienthal said that America has spent about 2,500,000,000 dollars on atomic enterprise, and added: “If this country really means business, then within the next several years this total expenditure will increase to approximately 5,000,000,000 dollars.