ee UNCLASSIFIED: ws INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES eS 50 students from 18 foreign countries. Attending-this session are 10 participants sponsored . by the International Atomic Energy Agency. : Three new courses open to foreign nationals were organized during the quarter. The course in radiochemical and radiation counting procedures to be given by the Health and Safety Laboratory of the New York Operations Office was scheduled to start on October 6. The laboratory is - prepared to offer up to four sessions of this 6-week course each year, to about six students per course, . The other two new coursesare to be given at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory starting in February 1959. The reactor hazards evaluation course is a 12-month course, while the reactor supervisors course is 2 9-month course, Ten to 15 students can be accommodated in each course, In addition to the formal courses offered by the AEC, special training is arranged for foreign students at other AEC installations, such as the University of California Radiation Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory. The AEC also gives counsel on an individual basis to students seeking further study in nuclear science and technology in United States colleges, universities, hospitals, research institutions, and industrial plants, DISARMAMENT The conference of technical experts proposed by President Eisenhower to study methods of detecting violations of a possible agreement on the suspension of nuclear tests concluded its work on August 21: The meeting began on July 1 in Geneva and was attended by a delega- tion of Western scientists from Canada, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States and by delegations of scientists from Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, and the USSR. The conference agreed unanimously to a final report which discussed basic methods for detection and identification of nuclear explosions, technical equipment of a control system, and conclusions on the nature of a control system. It was concluded that “it is technically feasible to set up with certain capabilities and limitations a workable and effective control system for the detection of violations of a possible agreement on the worldwide cessation of nuclear weapons tests.” On August 22 the President announced that the United States was prepared to enter negotiations for an agreementfor the suspension of nuclear weapons tests and the actual est2blishment of an international control system, and that the United States was also prepared, “unless testing is resumed bythe Soviet Union, to withhold further testing on its part of atomic end | hydrogen weapons for a period of one year from the beginning of the negotiations.” The President proposed October 31, 1958, as a date for beginning negotiations. On August 29, Premier Khrushchev announced that the USSR was prepared to begin negotiations on the date proposed by President Eisenhower. The USSR also accepted a United States proposal for experts to meet in Geneva to discuss the technical aspects of preventing surprise attack. The USSR suggested November 10, 1258, as a starting date for the talks. INTERNATIONAL MEETINGS DOE ARCHIVES United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation The report of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation _ Was released to the public on August 10. An AEC statement commenting favorably on the re- UNCLASSIFIED ro) _ 61