In July of 1973, a large scale national project* for nuclear steel making has started.
This project will take six years and some 7, 300 million yen. Main organization of research is the Engineering Research Association for Nuclear Steelmaking.
This association studies a total system and five sub-systems, which are heat exchanger, super heat resisting alloys, isoheat materials, reducing gas making and reduced pellts making. The development of Inuclear steel making technology as a national project aims at the completion of a direct-reduction steelmaking pilot plant which will be connected to the multi-purpose high-tempereture gas cooled reactor with a thermal output of 50 MW. With an aim at the above mentioned objective, efforts will be made to develop the design, construction and operational techneques for the pilot plant with a budget of about 7, 300 million yen to cover the relevant expenses for six years, commencing from 1973. To achieve this objective, the firstphase plogram will be directed toward research and development of technologies covering the system design and major components of the plant.
The project, in the meantime, is being carried out so that the 50MWt multi-purpose high-temperature gas cooled reactors being planned by the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute will attain their full power in 1982. The second phase of this national project accordingly will include the construction and operation plant for nuclear steelmaking to be directly connected to the multi-purpose high temperature gas cooled reactor. After success is achieved in the operation of the pilot plant, the scale of the plant will be expanded so that it will finally be developed into a commercial-scale plant. The period required to attain this prototype scale will be covered by the second-stage program.
The nuclear steelmaking pattern we are expecting to realize is asshown in Fig. 1. Based on the given condition that the temperature of reducing gas to be blown into the reduction furnace should be 800 to 850°C, efforts will be made so that a reactor-outlet herium temperature of 1, 000°C can be guaranteed in consideration of temperature drop in the heat exchanger. The heat of 1, 000°C taken out of the multi-purpose high-temperature reactor will be used through the intermediate heat exchanger for manufacturing and heating of reducing gas. In Japan, the reducing gas will be manufactured from vacuum residual oils because of the scarcity of petroleum and natural gases. As for the steelmaking system has been adopted in which the reduced iron produced by shaft furnaces is turned into crude steel by electric furnaces. With this pattern of nuclear steelmaking, the first-phase progrm, extending over a period of six years, will aim at the completion of research and development of major relevant components such as a high-temperature heat exchanger, heat-resistant superalloys, high-temperature heat insulation materials, reducing-gas manufacturiug units and reduced iron manufacturing unts as well as researches for the development of system design to link the reactor system with the steel making system with a high degree of consistency and safety.
* This Project based upon National Research and development Program by the Agency of Industrial Sciency and Technology, M. I. T. I.

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From the engineering viewpoint, continuous operation of powder handling processer is based on solids flow theory and rate equations incorporated with the techniques of process measurement and control. Establishing these theories, and then giving fundamental items such as material properties of solids, structure of epuipments and operational conditions, it would be possible to predict various phenomena relating to powder and inversely to design proper equipments as well as to select optimum conditions. At the same time, development of measuring and controling instruments is essential to continuous processes.
This article briefly presents systematic analyses on the mechanism of solids flow in relation to the unit operations of storage, supply, transport and sieving at first and then the kinetics of closed-circuit grinding, further followed by automatic detecting techniques of particle flowrate, mixing ratio and particle size.

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The supply and demand of crude oil has deen eased so much. They say, tanks of both consuming and producing countries are full of oil. Therefore, the producing countries in the Middle East Will try to maintain the present level of crude oil prices by reducing their production, While someone think of the price elasticity as such an important factor that the supply will overflow in near future.
The participation in the Gulf countries has made rapidly, the complete nationalization by the host countries will come in near time. This means that the disposal right of crude oil is to be transferred from majors to host countries. So the crude oil market in tne world will be changed so much.
Consuming countries, with taking into considerations after oil crisis, which include U. S. A., European countries and Japan, are now introducing the new energy program like Project Independence of America. Above all, the construction of nuclear plants are most expected to expand.

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As recent analytical techniques utilizing mass spectrometer in petroleum indnstry, high resolution and low resolution techniques anp also the technique using mass spectrometer with chromatograph, are reviewed in this paper.
High resolution technique with its ability to distinguish hydrocarbon overlap types, and sulfur, nitrogen, and oxygenated compounds, is being used to identify components of petroleum in more detail.
Low resolution technique is being activelyexamined by many researchers and the mass spectrometric methods as many as10 have been so far published from ASTM, Committee D-2.
Gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer combination technique is applied to various petroleum fractions, in place of the conventional time-consuming separations. This technique is also expected to develop increasingly as analytical method such as mass chromatography or mass fragmentgraphy.

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The coal has been picked up as a pinch hitter on a energy policy at present and future. Generally, the coal inustry must be erected at a big coal field by means of the cheep cost. Accordingly, it seems very difficult in Japan, but very easy in a foreign country.
In future, the coal industry will take three common ways. Those are the Car-bonization, the Gasification and the Liquefaction. The carbonization will be trend to a formed coke process. And it is supposed that a generation of the electric power is the best utiization of the C. O. G. The gas by a coal gasification will be used to the synthesis of Methanol, Synthol, NH₃ or S. N. G. But the methanol synthesis will be the most hopeful at a oversea coal field. The liquefaction will be affected by costs of petroleum, but in the 1980's it will be success including of the technical security.
Using coal prices by a foreign country base, trial calculations of these manufacturing costs were done comparing with costs of products from a natulal gas and a petroleum.
As a consequence, there will be some effects of the coal price, but coal industries will have a bright future.

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The Air Pollution Control Law was revised in June to include the provisions for regulation of total mass emissions in specific areas, and the regulations are scheduled to be enforced in this November.
The basic policy in enforcing total mass emission regulations, is as follows;
A) The new system will be introduced in areas where it is difficult to achieve the air quality standards by means of the conventional regulation system based on densities.
B) Ceilings on total mass emissions (sufficient to attain the air quality standards) will be established for each designated area.
C) Considering the ceilings of total emission volume in designated areas, emission volume limits will be set for each factory which is larger than specified scale and fuel standards will be established for smaller factories.
Equality is to be assured when setting emission limits for each factory. Allowances within ceilings on total emissions are also to be made for emissions from new facilites yet to be built.
D) The total mass emission regulations, after being applied initially to sulfur oxides alone, will be extended later to cover nitrogen oxides and soot and dust as well.
E) Improvement orders will be issued to companies found to have committed violations, with sanctions to be imposed of non-compliance.

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[in Japanese]

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