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URANIUM SHORTAGE will slow down peacetime power developments unless new domestic sources are found, says Atlas Corp. President Floyd B. Odium. By 1965 the U.S. will need as much as 5,000,000 tons of uranium ore annually, and the demand will increase rapidly after that. By 1975, predicts Odium, the U.S. will have a generating capacity of nearly 40 million kw. (38% of the current total) of electric power from nuclear fuels alone.

GIANT COKES, tried out in test markets since last year (TIME, Oct. 11), will soon be sold nationally. So far, some 200 local Coca-Cola bottlers have asked permission to put out either "king-size" (10-to-12-oz.) or "family-size" (26-oz.) bottles, and the parent company has given them the green light.

MERGER CURBS are in the wind at the Federal Trade Commission. Chairman Edward F. Howrey is considering asking Congress for new powers to require all corporations to file preliminary merger plans with the Commission. If the merger appears to violate the Clayton anti-trust act, the Commission will issue a stop-order, pending a court trial.

NEIMAN-MARCUS, Dallas' luxury specialty store, has bought a 22 1/2-acre site in suburban Houston, will probably put up a $5,000,000 store some time in 1956.

FIRST U.S. TURBOPROP plane for commercial use will soon be ordered by American Airlines to replace its piston-engined Convair 240s. Both Douglas and Lockheed are scrambling for an order from American for four-engined, 60-passenger transports with a 415-m.p.h. cruising speed and 2,500-mile cruising range.

UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIMS have tumbled to their lowest point since 1953, says the U.S. Labor Department. New claims for state unemployment compensation are now below 200,000 weekly for the first time since October 1953, and 30% less than a year ago. Total workers now drawing state compensation: 1,297,600 v. 2,119,500 a year ago.

ATOMIC REACTOR for big surface ships is being pushed by AEC. After giving Westinghouse Electric Corp. a preliminary contract for research and design last October, the AEC has asked Congress for $25 million to build a fullscale, dry-land prototype at its Idaho test center.

CONGRESSIONAL PROBES into aircraft company profits since the Korean war are moving along slowly, may never get off the ground because they run head-on into Democratic demands for bigger plane production. Louisiana Democrat Edward Hebert, who heads the House Armed Services subcommittee investigation, is quietly looking at company records. Texas Democrat George Mahon, who is in charge of the House Appropriations subcommittee investigation, is still recruiting investigators, will probably not have his facts in hand until January 1956.

COAL PIPELINE, first for the industry, will be built by Pittsburgh Consolidation Coal Co. to get around high railroad freight rates in the Great Lakes area. Costing approximately $10 million, the pipeline will run 108 miles between the coal company's Georgetown, Ohio mining properties and the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. plant at Eastlake, near Cleveland. It will carry as much as 1,200,000 tons of "slurry" (pulverized coal mixed with water) annually at an estimated $1 a ton cheaper than rail freight. Completion date: late 1956.

SHERATON CORP. will be the first big U.S. hotel chain to move in on the booming motel business. To its 30 hotels, Sheraton will add a $2,225,000 luxury motel near the Tarrytown exit of the New York State Thruway, some 25 miles north of the New York City line. To be called the Tarrytown Sheraton Inn, the new motel will have 156 rooms, a restaurant, bar and a drive-in registration desk.

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