sioner Gordon Dean, urged the Commission to take a
“quantum jump” by developing a thermonuciear weapon.
Strong support for the Strauss’ position came from the
Congressional Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, and
from scientists such as Edward Teiler, Luis W. Alverez, and
Ernest O. Lawrence, who agreed that the development of
result of extraordinary efforts by scientists and engineers
at the Commission’s Los Alamos weapon laboratory. A second weapon laboratory established at Livermore, Califor.
nia in early 1952, soon became the center of a weapon
engineering and production network which included the
Sandia Laboratory near Albuquerque, New Mexico,as well
as new or expanded facilities in lowa, Texas, Missouri,
the superbomb was absolutely essential to the security of
the United States. The members of the General Advisory
Ohio, and Colorado.(8)
ing high priority to the development of atomic weaponsfor
Organizing the National Laboratories
Committee, however, while concurring in the need for giv-
tactical purposes, recommended against an all-out effort
to develop a hydrogen bomb. On January 31, 1950, President Truman settled the issue with his momentous decision that the Commission should expedite work on the
thermonuclear weapon.(6)
Production Expansion
David Lilienthal resigned on February 15th after three
years as chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.
Although his dream of developing the full potential of the
peaceful atom had not been fulfilled, the Commission
underhis leadership had becomean effective government
institution. Indeed, the future held great promise for the
peaceful atom, but for the moment at least the military
atom would continue to be in the ascendancy.
By mid July 1950 Gordon Dean had becomechairman of
the Commission, and the Nation was no longerin a twilight
zone between peace and war. Following an attack by
North Korean troops across the 38th parallel, President
Truman ordered U.S. forces to the aid of South Korea.
Suddenly increased military demands, added to the President's decision to develop the hydrogen bomb, threatened
to exhaust the Commission's production capacity. Beginning in October 1950 the Commission embarked on a vast
expansion program. During the next three years the constructicn of huge plants increased capacity at each step in
the production chain. The new facilities included a feed
materials production center at Fernald, Ohio; a plant to
produce large quantities of lithium 6 at Oak Ridge; a
gaseous-diffusion plant at Paducah, Kentucky; a whole
new gaseous diffusion complex at Portsmouth, Ohio; two
“Jumbo” reactors and a separation plant for producing
plutonium at Hanford; and five heavy-water reactors at the
Savannah
River site in South Carolina for producing
tritium from lithium 6 as well as plutonium. The three year
three-billion-dollar expansion program represented one of
the greatest federal construction projects in peacetime
history.
In addition to having an impact on the Commission's expansion program, the Korean War also focused attention
on the need for a continental test site. In December 1950,
with the approval of the Department of Defense and the
General Advisory Committee, the Commission selected
the Las Vegas bombing and gunnery range asthesite to
conduct the Janusry 1961 Ranger test series, the first
atomic tests in the United States since the Trinity detonation at Alamogordo on July 16, 1945.(7)
The United States detonated the world’s first thermonuclear device in the fall of 1952. Code-named Mike, the
shot waspart of the /vy test series conducted at Enewetak
By the end of 1953 more than thirty weapon test devices
had been successfully fired at Pacific or Nevada sites, the
Fortunately the concentrated effort on weapon production did not mean a total neglect of the Commission���s
research laboratories. The Commission recognized the
need to maintain the vitality of the national labs, and to encourage the university research teams and industry groups
whose research on the peaceful uses of atomic energy
would provide the technology of the future. The
Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago had
been reorganized by the Armyin 1946 as the Argonne National Laboratory. The following year the Commission obtained a new site for the lab at Argonne,illinois and deter-
mined that the laboratory should become a large multi-
disciplinary research center for the midwest. Under the
direction of Walter H. Zinn, one of Enrico Fermi's principal
assistants in developing the world’s first reactor, Argonne
very quickly became the Commission’s center for reactor
development.{9)
The Clinton Laboratories, built during World War!! at
Oak Ridge, Tennessee, became the regional research
center for southeastern United States. Reorganized in
1948 as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge
became the Nation's largest supplier of radioisotopes for
medical, industrial and physical research, as well as a
regional center for research in chemistry, physics,
metallurgy, and biology. The laboratory also conducted
the largest radiation genetics program in the worid.
To provide regional research facilities for the northeast,
the Commission approved a plan by Associated Universities, Inc. to build and operate a laboratory at Upton, New
York. The Brookhaven National Laboratory provided
research facilities in reactor physics, high-energy accelerators, and the biomedical sciences. A fourth center in
the far west was established by expanding the facilities of
the University of California Radiation Laboratory at
Berkeley. In addition to the regionai centers the Commission continued to support the wartime research
laboratories at a number of colleges and universities, and
awarded and administered hundreds of contracts with
research institutions, universities and nonprofit organizations for basic research in the physical and biological
sciences.{10)
Reactor Development
Aithough by 1963 the vast production complex of the
Atomic Energy Commission was almost totally dedicated
to military purposes, the idea of a civilian nuclear power
system based on American industry was very muchalive.
Asearly as 1947, Lilienthal had publicly encouraged a partnership with industry in developing the peaceful uses of
atomic energy. The Commission had supported a modest
but coherent plan for developing nuclear power and propulsion and had permitted a few industry committees