\
X
-li6found in monazite sands, which exist to some extent in the United States,
Ceylon, and the Netherlands Last Indies, but to a mich greater extent in Brazil
and British India,
The Smyth Report states merely that thorium has "no apparent
advantage over uranium" (paragraph 2.21), but how important are its disadvantages
is not stated.
At any rate, it has been publicly announced that thorium is
already being used in a pilot plant for the productipn
of atomic energy set up
in Canada,3?
In considering the availability of ores to p
powers, it is always
necessary to bear in mind that accessibility is not determined exclusively by
national boundaries.
Accessibility depends on a combination of geographic,
political, and power conditions and on whether the situation is one of war or
peace.
During wartime a great nation will obviously enjoy the oreresources
ea ee
both of allied countries and of those territorieswhichits armies have overrum,
re eee rd on. soe ae on ee ie pee et eT
re ee
thoughinthefuturethe oresmadeavailableonlyaftertheoutbreak of
hostilities_may-notbeof much importance,
Because of the political orientation
of Czechoslovakia towards the Soviet Union, the latter will most likely gain in
peacetime the use of the Joachimsthal ores 410 just as the United States enjoys
the use of the immensely richer deposits of Canada.
The ores of the Belgian
Congo will in peacetime be made available to those countries which can either
have the confidence of or coerce the Belgian Governgent (unless the matter is
decided by an international instrument to which Belgium is a party); in a time
of general war thesameores wouldbecontrolled by the nation or nations whose
te ee
39+ New York Herald Tribune, December 18, 1915, p. 4.
Incidentally, the Canadian
pile is the first one to use the much-discussed "heavy-water" (which contains the
heavy hydrogen or deuterium atom) as a moderator in place of the graphite
(carbon) used in the American piles.
ho.
However, lir. Jan Masaryk, Czechoslovak Foreign Minister, asserted ina
speech before the Assembly of the U.N.O. on January 17, 1946 that "no CzechoSlovak uranium will be used for destructive purposes." Jew York Times, January
18, 1946, p. 8.
45D