Israel has discovered a process for the extraction of uranium from rock phosphates in the Negev desert, is experimenting with the use of solar energy, and has worked out a method for enrichment of heavy water by a process that does not require the use of electrical power.
These advances were revealed here today as Israel’s ten-man delegation to the International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, in session at Geneva, presented one of its most important scientific papers–a report dealing with the country’s energy requirements for the next ten years.
Prepared by the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, the report includes forecasts concerning various phases of the country’s future development. The revelations regarding uranium and solar energy were found “exciting” by scientific experts here–studying reports submitted at Geneva from 32 countries that have analyzed their future requirements for energy.
Explaining that the world trend in regard to uranium, now that vast technical advances have been recorded, is toward greater use of ” much poorer uranium ores” than those required until now, the report declares: ” the Israel Atomic Energy Commission has had the good fortune to find a suitable subject for such study in the rock phosphates of the Negev, which belong to the uranium-bearing minerals. Processes have been worked out for the extraction of the uranium as a by-product of the manufacture of phosphate fertilizers.”
ISRAEL’S EXPERIMENTS REPORTED AT GENEVA CONFERENCE
“In fact,” the report continues, “parallel to each of the procedures employed today in the phosphate fertilizer industries, an extraction process has been developed which does not require any significant change in these procedures. As other phosphate rocks of similar geological origin are also likely to contain uranium, this method may be of more general interest. It should also be applicable without much difficulty to ores other than phosphate rock.”
Israel is experimenting in other directions for the increase of the country’s energy and for fuels needed for development of energy. Mindful of the fact that all of its petroleum, at present, must be imported, the country is conducting surveys hunting for local mineral oil; and is planning to increase its hydroelectric power production. One of the latest scientific developments–the use of wind power as a source of electricity–has also been studied, and the report states there are now “a few experimental stations” in Israel attempting to develop this source of energy.
But next to the discovery of uranium ores in Israel, the country’s work in the field of solar energy–use of the sun’s own rays–is seen by the Israel Atomic Energy. Commission as a possible “significant factor in the energy economy of the country. “A special appendix to the report, written by Prof. H. Tabor, of the National Physical Laboratory of the Research Council of Israel, details in scientific terms the types of experiments conducted by the country so far in efforts to harness the sun’s rays for production of power.
“The abundance of sun radiation in Israel throughout the whole year, especially in the Southern part of the country, makes this source of energy particularly attractive,” the overall survey states. “Israel scientists are not only following attentively the achievements of other countries in this field; they have tried to make some contribution of their own.” Thus, modestly, the survey cites the work reported by Prof. Tabor, declaring that the highly-technical efforts described by him “have given promising results.”
ISRAEL EXPECTS 2,600,000 POPULATION WITHIN TEN YEARS
Israel’s overall report about energy needs is limited to a ten-year period, the survey states, because the country is developing so rapidly that a longer forecast would be unrealistic. Most countries double their electricity sales every ten years, according to statistics included in the report. Israel, however, doubles its consumption of electricity every four years. Using a scientific formula involving a multiple of kilowatt-hours, the figures show that Israel’s sales of electricity this year stand at the figure of 1055; will rise to 2,100 by 1959, and will double once again by 1963.
These estimates, the Atomic Energy Commission declares, are “conservative.” The forecasts predict that Israel’s present population of 1,700,000 will have increased by 1964 to 2,600,000. During the same period, agricultural area under irrigation will increase from the present 750,000 dunams to 3,600,000 dunams (900,000 acres).
Among the reasons for Israel’s rapid increase in energy requirements–along with the rise in population and growth of agriculture–are these factors, as summarized by the Commission: 1. Israel is seeking to raise the standard of living of its immigrant population to the norms of the West; to this end, it is endeavoring to develop simultaneously industry and agriculture; 2. Israel is reclaiming the Southern desert, which has been ravaged by the forces of nature and the neglect of its inhabitants, and making it habitable.
Requirements of electricity, on the industrial side, are therefore seen in the report as rising rapidly due to present future expansion of electro-chemical, electro-metallurgical, food and textile industries–all of these expansions promising not only more consumer goods for Israelis but also more goods for export. At the present rate of progress, Israel’s electricity requirements are seen as reaching, by 1965, the levels attained in 1952 by such highly-advanced countries as the United States and Switzerland.
An interesting sidelight was seen in the report’s juxtaposing Israel’s technical and scientific progress with the levels attained in neighboring Arab countries. One statistical table, comparing Israel’s energy production and installed capacity for 1953 with figures for 13 other countries with population ranging between 1.5 and 6 millions, shows that Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Iraq were behind Israel two years ago.
In 1953, Egypt’s installed electric power capacity amounted to 450,000 kilowatts, against Israel’s 190,000 kilowatts. However, Israel, having a population of only 1,670,000 at that time—against Egypt’s 21,425,000–had a capacity of 114 watts per head of population, while Egypt’s corresponding figure was only 21.
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