APPENDIX I!
Chronology
DATE
EVENTS
August 1, 1946
Atomic Energy Act of 1946 signed by President Truman.
January 1, 1947
Atomic energy program transferred from the Manhattan EngineerDistrict to the Atomic Energy
Commission.
Start of construction on first of two new Hanford reactors.
September 1947
March t, 1948
Oak Ridge National Laboratory officially established to continue work of Clinton Laboratories
established in 1943.
April-May 1948
Operation Sandstone, the first AEC nucleartest series conducted at Enewetak Atoll.
March 1, 1949
Announcement by AEC of selection of a site for the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho.
August 29, 1949
Soviet Union detonated nuclear device.
January 31, 1950
President Truman directs Commission “to continue work on all forms of weapons, including
the so-called hydrogen or super-bomb.”’
June 27, 1950
Truman orders U.S. forces to aid of South Korea.
December20, 1951
Experimenta! Breeder Reactor No. 1 (EBR-1) first reactor to produce electric powerfrom nuclear
energy.
June 14, 1952
Keel of the world’s first nuclear-powered ship, the submarine Nautilus, laid at Groton, Connecticut.
November 1952
World's first thermonuclear device detonated by U.S. at Enewetak.
December 8, 1953
Announcement by President Eisenhower of the Atoms-for-Peace program and proposal to
establish an international agency to promote peaceful applications of atomic energy.
March 1, 1954
First shot in Castle weapon testseriesfired in Pacific.
August 30, 1954
President Eisenhower signed the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, a major revision of the 1946 Act.
The new law made possible greater participation by private industry and more cooperation with
other countries in developing the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
January 10, 1955
Announcement by the AEC of the Power Demonstration Reactor Program, under which the
AEC and industry would cooperate in the construction and operation of experimental power
reactors.
August 8-20, 1955
First United Nations {International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, in
Geneva, Switzerland.
October 1, 1957
International Atomic Energy Agency inaugurated in Vienna, Austria. AEC Chairman Lewis
Strauss announced U.S. offer to make 5,000 kilograms of uranium 235 availabie to the agency.
December23, 1957
Full-power operation of the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, the world’s first full-scale
._ nuclear powerplant, at Shippingport, Pennsylvania.
August 22, 1958
President Eisenhower announced moratorium on weapontesting to begin on October31.
November 24, 1959
AEC Chairman John A. McCone and Professor Vasily S. Emelyanov signed Memorandum of
Cooperation between, U.S. and U.S.S. R.
Regulatory functions separated from General Manager's Office and placed under a Director of
Regulation.
March 1961
August 31, 1961
Soviet Union broke moratorium and began testing nuclear weapons.
December10, 1961
Project Gnome,the first Plowshare nuclear detonation, conducted in New Mexico.
April 25, 1962
First shot in Dominic series conducted at ChristmasIsland in the Pacific.
August5, 1963
Limited test ban treaty between U.S., U.K., and U.S.S.R. signed in Moscow.
August 26, 1964
President Johnson signed Private Ownership of Special Nuclear Materials Act.
October 1964
The nuciear-powered surface ships, Enterprise, Long Beach and Bainbridge, completed
“Operation Sea Orbit,” a round-the-world cruise without logistic support of any kind.
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