ENCLOSURE II CRITIQUE OF THE REPORT OF THE WATIONALACEDEMYOF SCIENCES The Blological Effects of Atomic Radiation Based on (1) "A Report to the Public,’and (2) ‘Summary Report.” To understand and best evaluate the implications of this report it is important to bear in mind the background of the individual selentists who made the study and their relationship to the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council and to the Government, The NAS-NRC is not a Government organization. True, it was established by President Lincoln in order to have a distinguished body of scientists with whom the Government could consult at the time of the Civil War, On the other hand, it is a self-perpetua- ting body of free American scientists who control the membership of the Academy without any Governmental appointments. While various Federal agencies may appoint representatives to the various divisions of the National Research Council (the operating body of the NAS), they serve to bring problems to the Council for advice, and not to control the actions or the opinions of Council, In the case of this study, the President of the NAS, Dr, Detlev W. Bronk, called together some 100 American sclentists to earry out the study as individual citizens. While some of the scientists were Government employees and top advisers to Government on scientific matters, they were not acting in these capacities in their participation in the study. The study was undertaken largely as a result of the concern felt throughout the country following the March 1, 1954 thermonuclear test explosion at Bikini, as a result of which a number -3- Enelosure II