The Development and Future of Nuclear Energy

Abstract

The following article is the Romanes Lecture given at Oxford on June 2 by Sir John Cockcroft. Together with Dr. Walton, Cockcroft was the first to achieve artificial transmutation of atoms by particles accelerated in an electrical field. He is now Director of Britain's Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell. The lecture contains one of the most authoritative and revealing discussions of the possibility of technical utilization of atomic power. The American reader will also be interested in Cockcroft's description of the history of the development of atomic energy in Britain during the early years of the war. This development, which contributed so much to the initiation and ultimate success of the atomic bomb project in America, is not familiar to most Americans, even to scientists, and is often overlooked in the discussion of whether American progress in atomic energy should be shared with Britain.