delegation to the first |AEA
delivered the President's mes
“-rence, Lewis Strauss
f hope that the fis-
sioned atom would now.betra
ned from a symbol of
fear to one of hope. The new spirit of international
cooperation had been in evidence even earlier when more
than 1400 scientists from 73 nations attended the first
United Nations sponsored International Conference on the
Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, held in Geneva,
Switzerland in August 1965. Similar conferences were held
in 1968, 1964 and 1971.
In addition to sponsoring the International Atomic
Energy Agency, the United States gave strong support to
Euratom, the European atomic snergy community consisting of West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the
Netherlands and Luxembourg. Formally inaugurated in
January 1958, Euratom undertook to establish an integrated program for developing an atomic energy industry in Europe similar to the European Coai and Steel
Community. Prior to the establishment of either the International Atomic Energy Agency or Euratom, the Atomic
Energy Commission had negotiated a series of bilateral
agreements to provide research reactors, power reactor
fuel and technical information to friendly nations, as well
as training programs for nuclear scientists and technicians.
Although no bilateral agreements were made with the
Soviet Union, Commission Chairman John A. McCone
and his Soviet counterpart, Professor Vasily S. Emelyanov,
signed a Memorandum on Cooperation on November 24,
1989, covering exchanges of visits and information on
several unclassified areas of peaceful nuclear application.
Similar memorandain the 1960's and early 1970’s covered
joint experimentsin the fields of high energy physics, controlled thermonuclear research and fast breeder reactors.(18)
Weapon Testing and Fallout
The detonation of the first shot in the Castle weapon
test series in the spring of 1954, however, had threatened
to cast a shadow over the glowing prospects for the
peaceful atom, so recently kindled by Eisenhower’s atomsfor-peace proposal. At the time of the Bravo shot on
March 1, a Japanese fishing vessel had been within 82
nautical miles of the test area, close enough to receive a
heavy dusting of radioactive fallout. By the time the ship,
the Fukuryu Maru (or Lucky Dragon) returned to Japan the
effects of the radiation exposure had becomeevident, and
several members of the crew required hospitalization. The
American and Japanese press accounts of the: incident
had made the public aware, probably for the first time, of
the worldwide dangersof radiation from fallout.(19)
On February 15, 1955, with the approval of the President, Strauss released a major report on the “Effects of
High-Yield Nuclear Explosions.” The report did little to
calm public apprehension, and mounting concerns found
expression in numerous articles on radiation and fallout in
scientific journals and other public media. Both the Committee on Armed Services and the Joint Committee on
Atomic Energy held hearings in the spring of 1955 on problems associated with radioactive fallout. The following
December the United Nations established a Scientific
Committee on Radiation with the former director of the
Commission’s Division of Biology and Medicine, Shields
Warren, as United States’ representative.(20}
in January 1956 Commissioner Willard F. Libby revealed
the existence of Project Sunshine, a study of globalfallout
from weapontesting which Libby had initiated in thefall of
1963 while serving on the General Advisory Committee.
Commission laboratories and contractors had been analyz-
ing data collected through a worldwide network monitor-
ing the presence of strontium 90 in humans, foods and
soils. Prior to 1953 public concern with radiation had focused primarily on workers in atomic energy projects. In
1957 the Joint Committee’s hearings on the nature of
radioactive fallout revealed for the first time the extent of
the Commission's radiation research program. Millions of
dollars were involved in more than 300 Commissionsponsored projects on various aspects of radiation and
fallout.(21)
Testing of nuclear devices by the United States continued throughout the 1950's, although the Eisenhower
Administration repeatedly expressed its willingness to suspend nuclear tests as part of a disarmament agreement.
When the Conference of Experts convened in Geneva in
the summer of 1958, the President announced that the
United States was prepared to negotiate a test ban agreement and would voluntarily suspend all weapon testing
after the completion of the Hardtack series in the fall. As a
result an unpoliced moratorium period began on October
31, 1958, during which both the United States and the
Soviet
Union
periments.{22)
refrained
from
nuclear
weapon
ex-
Limited Test Ban Treaty
Three years later the Soviet Union abruptly ended the
moratorium by announcing, on August 31, 1961, that they
intended to resumetesting. By now John F. Kennedy was
in the White House, and Glenn Seaborg had succeeded
John McCone as chairman. One of the original members
of the General Advisory Committee and thefirst scientist
appointed as chairman of the Commission, Seaborg
served during the entire decade of the 1960's.
Although the Soviet Union tested a large number of
high-yield weapons in the atmosphere during the autumn
of 1961, President Kennedy limited the Commission’s
weapon /aboratories to underground tests until April 25,
1962, when thefirst shot in the Dominic series was conducted at Christmas tsland in the Pacific. With technical
support from Seaborg and the Commission, the President
at the same time had been earnestly pursuing a test ban
agreement with the Soviet Union. It had been a long and
arduous task bearinglittle fruit. In an address to the Nation
on March2, 1962, Kennedy had explained that he deplored
the necessity of beginning atmospheric testing again, but
‘fa nation which is refraining from tests obviously cannot
match the gains of a nation conducting tests."(23)
Finally, after months of negotiations, a limited test ban
treaty was signed in Moscow on August 5, 1963, prohibiting nuclear explosion tests in the atmosphere, outer
space, or under water, but permitting underground
detonations provided no radioactive debris crossed the
borders of the country in which the test was being conducted.
in the absenceof further success in negotiating a comprehensive test ban treaty, President Kennedy, and iater
Presidents Johnson and Nixon, continued to authorize