Introduction
Almost a year after World War Il ended, Congress
established the United States Atomic Energy Commission
to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic
science and technology. Reflecting America’s postwar optimism, Congress declared that atomic energy should be
employed not only in the Nation's defense, but also to promote world peace, improve the public welfare, and
strengthen free competition in private enterprise. After
long monthsof intensive debate among politicians, military
planners and atomic scientists, President Harry S. Truman
confirmed the civilian control of atomic energy by signing
the Atomic Energy Act on August 1, 1946.(1)
The provisions of the new Act bore the imprint of the
American plan for international control presented to the
United Nations Atomic Energy Commission two months
earlier by U.S. Representative Bernard Baruch. Aithough
the Baruch proposal for a multinational corporation to
develop the peaceful uses of atomic energy failed to win
the necessary Soviet support, the concept of combining
development, production, and control in one agency found
acceptance in the domestic legislation creating the United
States Atomic Energy Commission.(2)
Congress gave the new civilian Commission extraordinary power and independenceto carry out its awesome
responsibilities. Five Commissioners appointed by the
President would exercise authority for the operation of the
Commission, while a general manager, aiso appointed by
the President, would serve as chief executive officer. To
provide the Commission exceptional freedom in hiring
scientists and professionals, Commission employees
would be exempt from the Civil Service system. Because
of the need for great security, all production facilities and
nuclear reactors would be government-owned, while all
technical information and research results would be under
Commission control, and thereby excluded from the normal application of the patent system.
In addition, the Act provided for three major advisory
committees: a Congressional Joint Committee on Atomic
Energy, a Military Liaison Committee, and a General Advisory Committee of outstanding scientists.{3)
The First Commission
On January 1, 1947, the fledgling Atomic Energy Commission took over from the Manhattan Engineer District
the massive research and productionfacilities built during
World War It to develop the atomic bomb. The facilities
were the product of an extraordinary mission accomplished in three years in almost complete secrecy. Under the
direction of General Leslie R. Groves of the Army Corpsof
Engineers, the aboratory experiments of Enrico Fermi and
other American and European scientists had been
transformed into operating plants capable of producing a
military weapon of devastating power. When the atomic
bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and
three days later on Nagasaki, not only was a long and costly war brought to an end, but the world also became aware
of a completely new and largely unexpected technology.(4)
Asthe first chairman of the agency created to control
the peacetime developmentof the new technology, President Harry Truman appointed David E. Lilienthal, a lawyer
and former head of the Tennessee Valley Authority. During the preceding year, Lilienthal and Under Secretary of
State Dean Acheson had co-authored the well-known
Acheson-Lilienthal report which had formed the basis for
the American plan for international control of atomic
energy. Serving with Lilienthal on the Commission were
Sumner T. Pike, a businessman from New England,
William T. Waymack, a farmer and newspaper editor from
lowa, Lewis L. Strauss, a conservative banker and reserve
admiral, and Robert F. Bacher, a physicist from Los
Alamos and the only scientist on the Commission. Carroll
L. Wilson, a young engineer who had helped Vannevar
Bush organize the National Defense Research Committee
during the war, was appointed general manager. Two
floors of the New War Department Building in Washington
provided a temporary home for the Commission. A few
monthstater more permanent headquarters were found at
18th and Constitution Avenue, N.W., in the former wartime offices of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The new Commission faced a challenging future. World
War Il was quickly followed by an uneasy international
situation commonly referred to as the Cold War, and Lilien-
thal and his colleagues soon found that most of the Com-
mission’s resources had to be devoted to weapon development and production. The requirements of national
defense thus quickly obscured their original goal of
developing the full potential of the peaceful atom. For two
decades military-related programs would command the
lion's share of the Commission's time and the major portion of the budget.(5)
The Nuclear Arsenal
To meet the Nation’s expanding requirements forfissionable material the Commission set about refurbishing
the production and researchfacilities built during the war.
A major overhaul of the original reactors and two new
plutonium reactors were authorized for the Hanford,
Washington plant. Oak Ridge was scheduled for an addition to the existing K-25 plant and a third gaseous diffusion
plant for the production of uranium 235. The Commission
decided to adopt the Army’s practice of hiring private corporations to operate plants and laboratories, thereby extending into peacetime the contractor system previously
used by the Government only in times of national
emergency.
The first test of new weapons was conducted at
Enewetak Atoll in April and May 1948. Operation
Sandstone explored weapon designs and tested a new fission weapon to replace the clumsy tailor-made models
used during World War Il. By 1948 the Commission had
both gun-type and impiosion-type non-nuclear and nuclear
components in stockpile and was well on the way toward
producing an arsenal of nuclear weapons.
In early September 1949 a special Air Force unit
detected a large radioactive mass over the Pacific, indicating that the Soviet Union had successfully detonated
a nuclear device. The Soviet detonation not only ended the
United States’ monoploy of nuclear weapons,but also had
an immediate effect on the Commission’s planned expan-
sion program. During the prolonged debate which fol-
lowed the announcement of the Soviet event, Commissioner Lewis L. Strauss, supported by fellow Commis-