Diabetes Therapy: Can New Techniques Halt Complications?

equivalently large and expensive reactor designed to test the effects of irradiation on a wide variety of components, but not those designed for any specific reactor. The project, named the fast flux test reactor (FFTF), has required at least as much money and effort as the prototype power stations in Europe. Officials defending the U.S. program argue that it will pay off in the advanced stages of breeder commercialization. But the FFTF is still not completed, 12 years after the previous big step in U.S. breeder development. "If I had had the immense industrial resources of the United States, where you have two large corporations capable of the whole job," said one British official who has long been associated with nuclear power development, "I would simply have taken out my pen and written a check." France and Britain found the need to develop a breeder more urgent than the United States did, because they have been more dependent on foreign oil and only have access to limited amounts of uranium. The situation is most acute for Great Britain, which has no domestic uranium reserves and had not discovered the North Sea oil fields when it made a national commitment to develop breeders. "We have long taken the attitude that only a foolish industry throws away 99 percent of its raw material," said T. N. Marsham, the deputy director of reactor development for the UKAEA, referring to the nonfissionable uranium left over from light water reactors. "In the United Kingdom we had a greater need," said Marsham, "andlet's face it-everyone does what he has to do." British planners think that the country could just get by with 5 percent of the world's uranium supply, commensurate with the fraction of electricity it uses, if breeders are introduced quickly. Thus, Marsham comments, "I would hate to be a U.K. representative going into a conference to bargain for more than our fair share of uranium if I didn't have the capability of the breeder in my negotiating portfolio." The French national commitment to develop breeders stems not so much from uranium impoverishment since France has 2 to 3 percent of the world supply within her borders and has special arrangements with former colonies in Africa, such as Gabon and Niger, that control an additional 10 percent but from a desire for energy independence. Officials at the CEA refer to the day when Phenix began commercial operation, which happened to be 14 July, as "our independence day." France is now in a position to export uranium, but breeders are absolutely essential for the country to become energy independent, which could occur by 2025 according to the CEA estimate. Short of total independence, French officials point out that the breeder can insulate their economy from the disruption that a geopolitical crisis in uranium distribution could cause. Both France and Britain are planning to proceed quickly to build commercial-sized breeders based on their prototype designs. According to CEA officials, a contract for construction of the 1200-megawatt Superphenix is only being delayed by organizational changes in the energy authority, and should be completed within months. It will be built at Creys-Malville in southeast France by a combine of French government and industry, CIRNA, and paid for by Europe's three largest electrical utilities-EdF in France, RWE in Germany, and ENEL in Italy. The price will be slightly less than $1000 per kilowatt. Before Superphenix is finished, which could be as early as 1982, the French national generating company, EdF, is planning to start two more 1200-megawatt breeders, to be ordered between 1978 and 1980. During the same period, Britain plans to start construction of a 1 300-megawatt plant, already named the Commercial Fast Reactor (CFR). The designs of these plants are already in the final stages, and at least one of them could be completed before the U.S. prototype plant. The leadership in breeder technology has clearly passed to Europe, and with their plans for early construction of commercial-sized reactors the British and French programs have enormous momentum. Public opposition to breeders is not nearly as strong in Europe as in the United States, and the economic imperative for their development is much stronger. The impressive record established so far indicates that Britain and France can probably meet their goals of installing a substantial number of breeders by the end of the century. If they are not limited by their industrial capacities, they will probably export breeders to other countries as well. -WILLIAM D. METZ