APPENDIX 8

STATEMENTS ISSUED BY WHITE HOUSE ON ALLOCATION

OF URANIUM 235, FEBRUARY 22, 1956

Statement by the President

Mankind's hopes and aspirations for peace and greater well-being are closely linked to the world's progress in developing the peaceful uses of atomic energy. The program to further this development has advanced steadily in the past two years.

I am announcing today further steps by the United States toward the production of peaceful power from the atom.

At the recommendation of Chairman Lewis L. Strauss of the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission, in which the Departments of State and Defense concur, I have determined, under Section 41b of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, that substantial quantities of the special nuclear material uranium 235 may now be designated for research and development purposes and for fueling nuclear power reactors at home and abroad. This material will be available for either sale or lease under conditions prescribed by the United States Government. The Commission's recommendations are based on extensive studies that have been in progress since enactment of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954.

The quantities of uranium 235 which will be made available for distribution over a period of years under this determination are:

a. In the United States, through lease for all licensed civilian purposes, principally for power reactors-20,000 kilograms.

b. Outside the United States, through sale or lease for peaceful purposes, principally power and research reactors-20,000 kilograms. This is in addition to the 200 kilograms already made available for research reactors abroad. It is not intended that nations which are presently producing uranium 235, or the Soviet Union and its satellites, shall share in this distribution.

Distribution of special nuclear material will be subject to prudent safeguards against diversion of the materials to non-peaceful purposes.

The quantities of uranium 235 to be made available as a result of this determination will permit us to carry out our responsibilities in the development of atomic energy for the common defense and security of the United States and for contributing to the peace and general welfare of the world.

Significant actions are under way to create an international agency and an integrated community for Western Europe to develop peaceful uses of atomic energy. The United States welcomes this progress and will cooperate with such agencies when they come into existence.

The special nuclear material to be made available will support the start of nuclear power programs with a generating capacity of several millions of electrical kilowatts. With this assurance, such programs may be undertaken in the next several years, in this country and abroad.

As additional projects are undertaken by our industry and by other nations, more nuclear fuel will be required. The Atomic Energy Commission has informed me that it will recommend that additional supplies be made available as become necessary in the future.

This action demonstrates the confidence of the United States in the possibilities of developing nuclear power for civilian uses. It is an earnest of our faith that the atom can be made a powerful instrument for the promotion of world peace.

Statement by Lewis L. Strauss, Chairman, U. S. Atomic Energy

Commission

The President's action in authorizing the Atomic Energy Commission to make available 40,000 kilograms of uranium 235 for use here and abroad in the development of nuclear power is the most important step toward peaceful uses of atomic energy since the passage of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954.

The President's action has two major aspects:

a. It authorizes the Atomic Energy Commission to provide sufficient uranium 235 to meet the estimated requirements of the private and public power groups in the United States which, in the role of pioneers, have announced plans for the construction and operation of nuclear power plants.

b. It enables the Commission to respond to the top-priority question concerning the availability of nuclear fuel being asked by our friends abroad who wish to negotiate agreements with the United States for assistance in developing their respective nuclear power programs.

We are now embarking on programs of aid in nuclear power development, extending beyond our previous programs of support of atomic energy research in the United States and abroad. Under these new programs we will provide uranium 235 to support nuclear power development during the life of the licenses issued under our civilian applications program at home and the expected life of agreed power reactor projects abroad using our fuel. The 40,000 kilograms of uranium 235 available to domestic and foreign users will not all be distributed in the coming year or in any other single year. It will be distributed over a period of years as needed, with smaller amounts in the early years.

Prior to the President's action today, the United States offered to make available, within prudent security considerations, to friendly nations prepared to invest their own funds in nuclear programs both access to and training in the new technology of theory, design, construction and operation of power reactors. We have carried out that promise in several ways. At the International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy held in Geneva in August 1955, the United States presented along with the valued contributions of other nations, much data useful in nuclear power research and development. We also have encouraged friendly nations to seek, under mutually acceptable standards of necessary security, more precise data and assistance in the power reactor field. The research type of bilateral agreements for cooperation now in effect with 26 nations contain these words:

"It is the hope and expectation that this initial agreement. . . . will lead to the consideration of further cooperation extending to the design, construction and operation of power-producing reactors."

Several nations are presently negotiating with us for the type of agreement envisioned in the bilateral research agreements.

As for training representatives of friendly nations in the new technology of power reactors, we have organized a special school at the Commission's Argonne National Laboratory from which 40 scientists and engineers already have been graduated and 30 more are now attending classes. These 70 men come from 29 nations. It is planned to extend this training. Among other means will be a proposed educational and research institution in the Far East.

In the present state of the nuclear art, countries with available water power or supplies of coal and oil will, for some time to come, find it more economic to build and operate conventional power plants.

The authorization of 20,000 kilograms of uranium 235 to be made available for lease to civilian users in the United States was based on estimates of current and future needs. These include the needs of existing licenses and pending applications for licenses as well as proposals received by the Commission-including proposals under the Power Demonstration Reactor Program-which seem likely to lead to the filing of license applications during the current fiscal year ending June 30, 1956.

Only part of the special nuclear material will be distributed in any one year. Licenses may be issued for a varying period extending up to 40 years, and delivery of uranium 235 to licensees will be spread over the life of the licenses, to permit start-up of reactors and replacement of fuel as required in later years.

The uranium 235 will be distributed under provisions of Section 53 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and will be allocated to specific licensees only on the basis of a Commission determination of the licensee's need for the material.

The procedures which will govern the distribution of the 20,000 kilograms of uranium 235 to be made available to other countries, as well as charges for sale or lease, will be announced in the near future. However, based on the value of $25 per gram of contained uranium 235 for enriched uranium leased for research reactors, as announced by the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission at the International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, the 40,000 kilograms of uranium 235 now made available for such sale or lease would have a value of one billion dollars.

APPENDIX 9

PUBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY PRECAUTIONS FOR ENIWETOK TESTS

Protection of the public health and safety is a primary consideration in the conduct of the nuclear tests which will begin in the spring of 1956 at the Eniwetok Proving Ground.

Various precautions have been taken to keep significant radioactive fallout within the confines of the danger area in the Pacific which was announced on March 1, 1956. With the exception of Joint Task Force facilities, there are no inhabited places within the danger

area.

There is no reason to expect that hazardous fallout will occur outside the

danger area, and it is highly unlikely that any inhabitants of atolls will have to be moved. However, complete plans have been made for transportation of the inhabitants should such action have

to be taken.

Fallout predictions are dependent upon the accuracy of weather information. The weather reporting network which will be utilized for the 1956 tests will be larger than those in effect during any previous operation. Additional surface and upper air observing stations have been established, and improved equipment and techniques have been developed to increase the altitude and improve the accuracy of weather observations. As a result, more complete and earlier weather information will be provided.

Research has been conducted in the

special field of tropical meteorology, and weather observers and forecasters have been instructed in the new methods of forecasting which have been developed as a result of these studies. Trained personnel have been organElaborate systems have been estab-ized into a fallout prediction unit. lished to detect and measure radioactiv- They will utilize newly-developed fallity in the vicinity of the Proving out computers, will assist in predicting Ground, in the United States, and in fallout patterns by mechanizing most other parts of the world. In addition, of the mathematical procedures inextensive marine surveys will be conducted to measure radioactivity in sea water and marine organisms.

More detailed information on health and safety measures relating to the test series follows:

FALLOUT PREDICTIONS

Tests will be conducted only when the forecast pattern of significant fallout is entirely within the danger area, in which there are no inhabitants. In forecasting fallout patterns, scientists will make use of improved methods of collecting and evaluating data which have been developed as a result of intensive study of the problem of predicting fallout in the vicinity of the Proving Ground.

volved.

Use of the computers is expected to allow forecasts to be made much more rapidly than heretofore, so that the final decision to conduct or postpone a test can take last-minute weather observations into account.1 Models of the clouds produced by large

1 The fallout computer, designed by the National Bureau of Standards, works in the following way:

Weather information and estimates of the diameter and height of the cloud and the distribution of radioactivity within the cloud are fed into the computer by setting various

dials. One-twentieth second after the data

is set up, the machine visually displays a predicted fallout pattern on the face of a television-like tube. The predicted radioactive intensity at any point up to 250 miles or more from ground zero is indicated by the brightness of the pattern at the particular

point in question.