relocated Amchitka sea otters to new hames in an attempt to rebuild the
sea otter population.
In a dramatic gesture to demonstrate his faith
that the Cannikin shot would not touch off serious seismic disturbances,
Commission Chaimman James R. Schlesinger took his wife and two daughters
to the island for the November 6, 1971 test shot.
-
As the Commission tested, the United States and the Soviet Union
found more common ground for arms control agreements.
treaties banned muclear weapons
testing,
storage,
A series of
or deployment
in
Antarctica (AntarcticTreaty, 1959), outer space (Outer Space Treaty,
1967), Latin America (Treaty of Tlateloco, 1967), and on the ocean floor
(Sea-Bed Treaty, 1971).
In 1969 the two superpowers began a series of
strategic arms limitation (SALT) talks aimed at halting the development
of anti-ballistic missile systems.
By 1972 the talks had produced
agreements which would help to keep nuclear war fram starting and reduce
Soviet missile production.
The SALT agreements led President Nixan to
proclaim that the era of confrontation between America and the Soviet
Uniion had been successfully transfomned into an era of negotiations.°”
The Cammission not only continued to perfect nuclear weapons but
also investigated new ways to produce weapons and fissionable materials.
In the concept of laser fusion, Cammission scientists explored the
| ability of high-energy lasers to induce thermonuclear reactions in small
Geuterium-tritium pellets.
power
implications
the
Because laser fusion had military as well as
Cammission
counted
it as
a weapon
program.
Commission scientists also examined the potential use of lasers to
separate isotopes of uranium.
become a large program. >4
By 1974
laser isotope separation had