Both units at Mihama nuclear power sta­tion are idle because of radiation leaks

Japan's nuclear problems pile up A faulty heat exchanger tube got the blame last week for shutdown of yet another nuclear power station in Japan. Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s first nuclear unit—a 559-Mw pres-surized-water reactor of Westing-house design—was halted earlier this month after discovery of a minor radiation leak into its sec­ondary cooling system. The reactor had gone critical in January and was nearing the end of trial runs before start of commercial operation in July.

With this shutdown, six of Japan's 12 power reactors are out of action either for corrective repairs or for safety inspection prompted by flaws detected in similar U.S. reac­tors. This includes five of the eight units—three boiling-water reactors based on General Electric tech­nology and two pressurized-water reactors of Westinghouse basic de­sign—already in commercial service in Japan's power grid. Three more reactors are continuing trial runs prior to commercial use later this year. (One of these, Kansai Electric Power's Takahama No. 2 unit, cur­rently is halted for a nontechnical reason: jellyfish. Homing in on the heat, they clogged the exhaust water discharge gates at this station on the coast of the Sea of Japan.)

Pressurized-water reactors have a history of operating problems in Japan. Kansai Electric Power, which supplies electricity to the heavily industrial Osaka region, brought Japan's first such reactor into the power grid in late 1970 at Mihama. A second, larger reactor was put into service at that station in mid-1972, just as No. 1 unit was shut down after radiation leakage into the secondary coolant was de­tected. Pinholes had developed in some tubes of the heat exchanger that serves as steam generator. No. 1 resumed operation a few months

later but has been halted since July 1974, after another radiation leak in the steam generator. Five months ago a similar leak shut down No. 2 unit, and Mihama's 840-Mw total capacity thus is idle.

Meanwhile, all four boiling-water reactors in the Japanese grid were halted for inspection last autumn after cracks were found in the coolant system of a GE-designed unit in the U.S.—Commonwealth Edison's Dresden No. 2 unit. Simi­lar cracks were found in a 460-Mw boiling-water reactor of Tokyo Elec­tric Power Co. That unit remains closed. The other three were halted again in mid-February after cracks found in the emergency core cooling system of Dresden No. 2 unit led to shutdown for inspection of 23 U.S. reactors. Again, a similar problem was discovered in one of the Japa­nese boiling-water reactors—Japan Atomic Power's 357-Mw Tsuruga station. D

Many firms cut graduate hiring The U.S.'s largest businesses have cut back sharply on their previous plans for hiring 1975 college and university graduates. That not too startling information comes from Dr. Frank S. Endicott, retired direc­tor of placement at Northwestern University and compiler of the Endicott Report, a yearly survey of trends in employment of graduates by business and industry.

Late last year, 160 firms re­sponded to Endicott's questionnaire on 1975 hiring intentions (C&EN, Dec. 23, 1974, page 5). Some com­panies planned to hire fewer grad­uates, but others said they would hire more. Overall, the total was about the same as for 1974—about 13,200. But, he notes, the business downturn proved to be more severe than anticipated; the situation called for another look.

Sure enough, a new survey of 110 large companies shows demand for bachelor's degree holders down 33%, compared to the earlier data. By broad categories, requirements are down 43% for engineers, 20% for ac­counting and business administra­tion majors, and 40% for liberal arts graduates. The companies also say they plan to hire 18% fewer master's degree holders. Again, demand is off 43% for engineers, but only 1% for those with business, accounting, and liberal arts degrees.

The statistics are disturbing, Endicott says, but the employment picture isn't really that grim. What

the figures mean, he explains, is that the 1975 graduate is entering a buyer's, rather than a seller's mar­ket. At Northwestern, for example, each 1974 B.S. engineering graduate averaged 4.5 job offers; this year the average is only 1.5 offers. But in terms of actual jobs, demand for engineers has held up well, despite the cutbacks in plans. Competition for chemical engineers has been particularly keen. D

Chlorofluorocarbons banned in Oregon Chlorofluorocarbon makers may have felt tremors last week—per­haps foreshadowing larger shock waves—when Oregon governor Bob Straub signed into law the first state ban on the sale of aerosol products propelled by chlorofluorocarbons. The new measure will take effect February 1977. And at least one aerosol product maker has an­nounced that it has halted use of chlorofluorocarbons in its products, but not as a result of the new Oregon law.

Implicated as damaging to the earth's ozone layer, chlorofluoro­carbons have received much atten­tion recently. A federal task force (C&EN, June 16, page 4) chaired by Dr. Warren Muir of the govern­ment's Council on Environmental Quality concludes that "there seems to be legitimate cause for serious concern." Industry critics say that the panel is prejudging the facts. Depletion of the ozone layer, which shields the planet from ultraviolet radiation, could give rise to a dra­matic increase in the incidence of skin cancer and cause noticeable weather changes, some scientists believe.

Affected by the Oregon ban will be such products as spray deodor­ants and hair sprays. The law, how­ever, will permit aerosol containers charged with other propellants, such as compressed air, carbon dioxide, and hydrocarbons.

The Chemical Specialties Manu­facturers Association, which has long urged restraint in actions such as those imposed by the Oregon ban, had no immediate comment about the signing of the bill, saying that it already has addressed the chloro­fluorocarbon issue at length.

Meanwhile, Du Pont, the major producer of chlorofluorocarbons in the U.S., says that the Oregon ban "is wrong," and that it will have a negative economic impact on the state. Moreover, the company points out, "it won't do a thing to

June 23, 1975 C&EN 5

alleviate the problem—if there is one."

In another development, S. C. Johnson & Son Inc. (Johnson Wax) disclosed that it has stopped using chlorofluorocarbon propellants in its products. According to chairman Samuel C. Johnson of the Racine, Wis., firm the move was made "in the interest of our customers during a period of uncertainty and scien­tific inquiry." The company says that about 5% of the propellants used in its aerosol products were chlorof luorocarbons.

In addition, Johnson says that the firm plans to take out advertise­ments in major newspapers around the U.S. to "reassure customers" and explain the company's action. Johnson Wax also will begin label­ing all its aerosol products; "Use with confidence, contains no Freon or other fluorocarbons claimed to harm the ozone layer." D

Clinical radioassay methods automated Two new instruments to automate radioactive clinical testing proce­dures were unveiled by Union Car­bide's clinical diagnostics division last week at the annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine, held in Philadelphia. One is the first completely automated system for radioimmunoassay (RIA). The other is an automatic method for preparing radiodiagnostic re­agents to be injected into patients. It significantly reduces exposure of hospital personnel to radiation.

Carbide's computer-controlled RIA system, called Centria, is de­signed to increase the speed and economy of performing the more commonly run RIA tests, such as those for digoxin and thyroid hor­mones T3 and T4 . One technician can perform 800 RIA tests per day using the instrument, compared with about 100 tests done manually. This increased efficiency may make it possible for many medium-sized hospitals to do their own RIA test­ing, rather than having to send the samples to outside laboratories. The system also uses smaller quan­tities of relatively expensive RIA reagents and controls.

Carbide has field studies under way to determine the cost saving that automation is expected to bring to RIA testing. The early indication is that the cost per test at medium-sized hospitals will be reduced to one fourth or one fifth by use of the instrument.

Radioimmunoassay is one of the

faster growing new methods of clini­cal diagnosis. It takes advantage of the great sensitivity available in detecting radioactive materials and the extreme specificity of chemical antigens for specific antibodies that may be present in abnormal amounts in diseased states. The method can detect antibodies pres­ent in nanogram, or even picogram, quantities—two or three orders of magnitude lower than is possible with other test methods.

Because the assay deals with such small quantities, however, it is par­ticularly sensitive to variations in reaction time as well as to imprecise reagent measurement. Although variation between samples of about 2% is common for other types of diagnostic tests, a 20% variation must be tolerated in manual RIA tests. The Centria system runs all samples simultaneously, reducing variation to about 5%.

The second system introduced last week is called CintiChem. The system prepares technetium-based diagnostic reagents for organ scans from unit-dose quantities of organ-specific reagents. Preparation of the radiodiagnostic takes place entirely within the instrument, reducing the number of exposures to radiation by hospital personnel from five in con­ventional procedures to one—the actual injection of the reagent into the patient. D

Toxic substances hearings limp along The on-again off-again House hearings on toxic substances control were finally on last week. However, whether the Subcommittee on Con­sumer Protection & Finance gleaned anything that would be of much use in writing toxic substances control legislation is very much an open question. Some witnesses' testi­monies were only peripherally rele­vant at best to the legislation, and other witnesses—including Ameri­can Chemical Society president William J. Bailey—were left cooling their heels in vain for as long as four and a half hours.

So far the hearings have been re­scheduled twice. Boasting a more comprehensive list of witnesses than the Senate side, which completed its hearings in April, the House sub­committee had told its witnesses that they were allowed only 10 min­utes for their presentations. But some witnesses got as much as an hour on the first day of hearings, which were chaired by Rep. Lionel Van Deerlin(D.-Calif.).

Van Deerlin: confusion over legislation

Among the testimonies that were only peripherally relevant was that of Michael S. Shaw, a lawyer repre­senting a group of South Side Chi­cago residents. He talked about how his clients were "injured" by the leakage of silicon tetrachloride from a storage tank. After considerable discussion with Rep. Bob Eckhardt (D.-Tex.), a subcommittee member, Shaw was informed by Eckhardt that transportation and storage of toxic materials is under the purview of the Department of Transporta­tion.

Further, there was confusion over whether proposed legislation covers chemicals at the point of manufac­ture, in addition to chemicals that enter interstate commerce, Rep. Van Deerlin seems to think not. But witnesses Anthony Mazzocchi, citi­zenship-legislative director of the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers International Union, and Dr. Robert N. Hoover, head of the environment studies section of the National Can­cer Institute, seem to think so. Maz­zocchi illustrated his point by show­ing a film of workers dying from exposure to asbestos in Tyler, Tex. And Hoover showed county-by-county maps of the U.S. that indi­cate that there are higher incidences of bladder, liver, and lung cancer around industrial chemical sites.

The subcommittee is considering three bills on toxic substances con­trol. H.R. 7229, introduced by Rep. Eckhardt, and H.R. 7548, intro­duced by Rep. William M. Brod-head (D.-Mich.), are similar in in­tent to the Senate bill S. 776. A third bill, H.R. 7664, introduced by Rep. John T. McCollister (R.-Neb.), is milder and is, with few changes, the House version passed last Con­gress. Two to three more days of hearings are scheduled and were slated to be resumed last Friday. But then, there were some reports that Friday's hearings would be de­layed until Monday, and Monday's hearings delayed u n t i l . . . . D

6 C&EN June 23, 1975