Science: The Pure Savannah

For the $260 million hydrogen bomb plant that will soon be built in South Carolina, the people of that region can thank—or blame—the Savannah River. The Atomic Energy Commission admitted last week that it had studied rivers across the U.S. before finally picking the Savannah as the most suitable.

Large nuclear reactors need vast quantities of cooling water, and it must be water of a very special sort. The plutonium plant at Hanford, Wash. was built there because of the Columbia River, but Columbia water did not prove entirely satisfactory. Though clear and cold and plentiful, it contains a large amount of...

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