abundance of fissionable materials in that it was designed to produce either plutonium or electric power, 48 . A New Era The Limited Test Ban Treaty and the production cut-back signaled a new era for the nuclear weapon program. The overriding Cold War mission of the Atomic Energy Commission, producing a nuclear arsenal to protect _ the free world, had been successfully achieved and the fact politically recognized. The Commission had tactical missiles, artillery pieces, created warheads a variety of nuclear bombs, for strategic nuclear shells atomic demolition devices resembling gigantic mines, antisubmarine weapons, and torpedoes. So efficient were and for ~ land its factories that by the early 1960's the nuclear arsenal numbered in the tens of thousands of weapons. Robert McNamara Burope. "49 The . . . "Of this huge total, Secretary of Defense reported that 7000 were located in Westem Commission's achievement ranked as one dramatic and awesome feats in the history of the nation. of the most Although the nuclear weapon program consumed the largest portion of the Commissicz's budget, it could no longer claim the urgency oer overriding importance cf the 1950's. | The Commission continued to carry out an extensive weapon ‘esting program, now planning and conducting tests by fiscal year rather than dy periodic series. In the 1960's test series consisted of weapon cesion and verification shots, Plowshare experiments, and Vela program shcts. Because the shots were all fired underground no further militaror Civil effects tests were conducted. The Commission, however, méinteinsc