~7A 31 Jan. 61 message from Betts to the labs refers to establishing a briefing
at Headquarters AEC tentatively for some time in the Feb. 7-9 period, on "Russell's
problem."
Betts, by this message, requests the directors to arrange for a short
briefing on each labs weapons development programs in conjunction with the Russell
briefing, which would be a general orientation for the chairman and possibly the
other commissioners.
Betts notes that he received lengthy briefings from Foster
and Agnew on 16 & 20 Jan. respectively.
A wessage from Betts to the labs on 1 Mar. specifies the agenda for the
hearings before the JCAE on the laboratories and AEC's programs beginning on
6 Mar.
Among the items requested by the JCAE for laboratory briefing is “effect
of the moratorium on development effort now and in the future."
Throughout this folder are periodic charts and narratives from ALOO to the
concerned agencies containing an updated list of the various weapons in stockpile
of being developed and what the planned dates for production and entrance to
stockpile and what the planned uses on the military systems with those details are.
In Feb. and Mar. of 61, at the request of Betts, the “certification" procedures
used by LASL and Livermore were to be reviewed and coordinated through ALOO with
several directives from Betts.
Noting that this process has been going on for
some time and further stating that it will probably remain with us for some time
he feels that there should be a definitive formulation of the procedures.
Among
his guidelines are that no agency or laboratory outside of the AEC should be
involved in the process prior to certification and leading up to certification;
that DMA expects to hear the final results and justifications and statements from
the laboratory which originated the design;
that it include the procedures not only
under the present no testing situation but extrapolated a future of no testing or