All If's, And's, and But's Westinghouse says develop­ment o f atomic power not far enough along to dictate marketing policies

CAN A REACTOR manufacturer guar­antee the output and life of a plant which has never been built? This is the basic question on which plans to market power from nuclear sources pivot, W. D. Shepherd, of Westing-house, tells the American Marketing Association in Pittsburgh last month.

Continuing, Shepherd points out that by 1965, installed power capacity should be 215 million kw.—double to­day's figure. Energy sales will total about 880 billion kw.-hr.—twice last year's figures. By the year 2000, in­stalled capacity could well be 10 to 15 times today's 100 plus million kw. And, 30% of this will be coming from atomic power plants—facilities which, by the way, will start making their debut next year as the Shippingport plant, built by Westinghouse, goes on stream (to be followed, in five years, by 10 other plants across the U. S.).

• No Changes Expected. But, the marketing of atomic power will not revolutionize present marketing prac­tices and principles, predicts Shepherd. While many materials and specialty products will be designed for sale in the atomic power industry, these items will be handled through existing ave­nues of distribution.

Westinghouse, for example, plans to market power to the chemical process and other industries, within the frame­work of the company's existing sales

organization. But, it is recognized that a whole new line of products must b e understood by sales people. There­fore, it is expected that most marketing in this new industry will require special­ized effort on the part of headquarters and manufacturing location personnel. Today, it is difficult to talk of selling atomic power without having engineers as part of the sales team.

• State of the Art. It is well known in chemical circles that atomic reserves far and away exceed those of gas, oil, and coal. Today, fossil fuels can b e used to make electric power much cheaper than uranium can. But look­ing to the future, the big questions are:

• When and where will atomic power become economically competitive with fossil fuels? • What type of atomic power plant will be most economical?

Answers to these questions are now very much in a state of flux. It is difficult to pinpoint the day atomic power will be competitive with present day energy—simply because no one has a working plant. Also, what type of atomic plant is best is still debatable, Now, there are a host of designs under consideration—pressurized water, boil­ing water, liquid sodium, and aqueous homogeneous to mention a few.

So, in the final analysis, atomic marketers are on the threshold of de ­fining a specific product—a threshold, explains Shepherd, which can be com­pared to the state of technical develop­ment when American industry was de ­bating whether to use alternating or direct current. And, this product defi­

nition is one of the real marketing problems which nuclear reactor manu­facturers face today. Until operating experience has been gained from the various prototype units, the reactor manufacturers are basing commercial decisions on calculations and estima­tions of their engineers.

This is the best that can be done to­day. But certainly, commercial policies which are being formulated to sell atomic power have not yet reached the point where atomic marketers can apply procedures which are currently used in selling conventional equipment.

So long As It's Legal International congress votes recommendation that drug trademarks last forever

THERE SHOULD BE no limitation on durability of pharmaceutical trade­marks or the right to the exclusive use of such trademarks so long as the sale of the products is lawful—this was recommended by a vote of the biennial congress of the International Associa­tion for the Protection of Industrial Property. This, along with a series of other recommendations, will be sub­mitted t o the diplomatic conference scheduled for Lisbon sometime next year to consider revising the treaty affecting patents, trademarks, and serv­ice marks.

The congress also agreed that :

• No patent should be refused or can­celled solely on the ground that the sale of the product governed by the patent is prohibited. • Nonuse of patents in foreign countries

Nuclear Power Summary

AEC-Owner

-Duquesne Light

Southern California Edison Pacific Gas & Electric Detroit Edison APDA Consumers Public Power Consolidated Edison

Commonwealth Edison— NPG

Yankee Atomic Electric

Elk River Electric Corp.

Wolverine Electric Corp. Westinghouse—Penn

Power & Light

Reactor Builder Westinghouse

North American Aviation General Electric PRDC North American Aviation Babcock & Wilcox

General Electric

Westinghouse

American Machine & Foundry

Foster Wheeler Westinghouse

Moderator Pressurized

water Sodium Graphite Boiling Water [Fast breeder] Sodium Graphite Pressurized

Water Boiling Water

Pressurized Water

Boiling Water

) [Aqueous ) homogeneous]

Capac­ity

(Thou­sand kw.) 60

7 .5 5

100 75

140

180

134

18

10 150

Location Shippingport, Pa.

Santa Susana, Calif. Livermore, Calif. Monroe, Mich. Columbus, Neb. Buchanan, Ν. Υ.

Lemont, Ill.

Rowe, Mass.

Elk River, Minn.

Hersey, Mich. Eastern Pennsylvania

Com­ple­tion

Date 1957

1957 1957 1959 1959 1960

1960

1960

1960

?

1962

J U L Y 9, 19 5 6 C & E N 3339

I N D U S T R Y

should not be deemed to b e an abuse or monopoly and therefore no forfeiture or compulsory license should be permitted. • Service marks should be given the same recognition and protection af­forded trademarks, and service marks should be defined. • Misrepresentation of products as to geographical origin or quality of in-gredients should be prohibited. Offi­cials of the congress said that this recommendation, if adopted in the treaty, could have far reaching effects.

The question of patentability of chemical products, as distinguished from chemical processes, was scheduled for a thorough airing at the congress, but did not reach the floor because of time limitations. Many countries now provide patent protection for chemical processes, but not for the chemical products themselves.

Sales and Labs to Suburbia Union C a r b i d e makes plans for using Westchester site for sales departments and research and service labs

AT LEAST PART of Union Carbide's operations in the New York area will be moved to its suburban property in Westchester County near Tarrytovvn, N . Y. This 280-acre site in the towns

This plot plan shows Union Carbide's proposed development in Westchester County, New York, in the towns of Greenburgh and Mount Pleasant

of Greenburgh and Mount Pleasant was purchased in 1952. At that time it planned to centralize its offices on the site. Then last August the com­pany officially changed its mind: A $40 million office building would be built covering the block surrounded by Park and Madison Aves., and 47th and 48th Sts. (C&EN, Aug. 29 , 1955, page 3568) . This was hailed as the end of corporate "rustication" at the time, just as the original purchase had aroused speculation as to the future of New York as a chemical center (C&EN, June 30, 1952., page 2 7 4 6 ) .

Although the new office building in New York will have 1,250,000 square feet of floor space, Carhide says that the present and future needs of the company require construction of cer­tain buildings in addition to it. Those scheduled for construction in West­chester include: an office building to house the employees of sales depart­ments of several o f the company's divi­sions; a basic research, lab to conduct general research for the company; and a service lab devoted t o research work on customers* problems. Carbide feels that the Westchester site is well suited for these buildings.

Construction o f the new buildings will start early in 1957, and the sched­ule calls for their completion early in 1959. The buildings are to be two or three stories high, with walls of brick, stainless steel, and glass. A central utilities building and a cafeteria for employees will also be constructed.

The new facilities will eventually be staffed by about 1000 people, some of whom are now in the employ of Car­bide in New York and elsewhere.

Texaco Takes Second Step Construction will start this fall on

Texas Co.'s second major petrochemical facility: an ammonia plant at Lock-port, Ill. This 180-ton-per-day unit, besides being close to sales outlets, will have the economic advantage of using hydrogen from the company's refinery on the site.

The plant will have facilities for converting a substantial part of the ammonia to nitrogen solutions. In de­veloping its plans for the ammonia plant, Texaco made a. study of air and water pollution control techniques. It plans to install equipment to eliminate pollutants from the used water and to eliminate the "yellow plume" flare com­monly associated with manufacture of nitric acid.

Foster Wheeler will build the am­monia plant, and Chemical & Indus­

trial will build the acid and solutions plant.

Up to now, Texaco has been active in petrochemicals principally through affiliated companies and the production of captive additive materials such as Petrox. Its first major petrochemical facility is an additives plant which will begin production early next year at Port Arthur, Tex.

Texaco has a 50% interest in two petrochemical companies: Jefferson Chemical and Texas-U. S. Chemical.

The Higher They Go Gallery Chemical, a subsidiary of

Mine Safety Appliances, has been awarded a cost without fee contract by the Navy to build a high energy fuel plant. It will be located on government-owned land near Mus­kogee, Okla., and will cost about $38 million to build and equip.

Since 1948, Callery has been en­gaged in studies of high energy chemi­cal compounds. In mid-1952;, the Navy awarded Callery a contract to develop special high energy chemical compounds as fuels for military appli­cations. This project has progressed from the lab through pilot plant stages to where the production of tonnage quantities is now planned.

• General Latex & Chemical, Cam­bridge, Mass. has entered the isocya-nate foam field, as a supplier of Vul-tex isocyanate foam compounds.

• Continental Can has acquired Ca­nadian Crown Cork. The move marks the first entry of a metal container com­pany in Canada into the crown cork field. Completion of negotiations whereby Continental purchased the capital stock of Canadian Crown through its subsidiary, Colonial Can-ners, will add crown cork production to existing Continental facilities in metal containers, paper cups, and pa­per milk bottles.

• Hooker Electrochemical has now completed integration of the Niagara Alkali sales department into the Hooker sales department.

• Ravens-Metal Products will locate an aluminum fabricating plant adjacent to Kaiser's aluminum plant at Ravens-wood, W. Va. It is the first satellite industry to take advantage of Kaiser's production, scheduled to get under way this summer.

• Alpine Aromatics is a firm recently formed by Raoul Pantaleoni at Me-

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