THE ATOMIC ENERGY BILL

What It Proposes

Drafted by the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy (headed by New York's Congressman W. Sterling Cole and his vice-chairman, Iowa's Senator Bourke Hickenlooper), the bill has two main objectives: 1) to create a private atomic-power industry, and 2) to prepare allied nations for atomic warfare and peacetime uses of atomic energy.

To end the Government's atomic monopoly, it would set up machinery for licensing companies to make electric power from atomic energy. Under the AEC's paternal eye, the companies would acquire their own reactors and other facilities, but the Government would keep title to nuclear materials which it would lend out. The bill also would allow private citizens to take out patents on atomic-energy developments, and would encourage prospecting for fissionable materials on public lands.

In the international field, the bill would permit the U.S. to ship nuclear source materials to allied nations which make a substantial contribution to the free world's security. The U.S. could also send to allies or regional-defense organizations, e.g., NATO, atomic-weapons information needed for 1) defense plants, 2) training personnel in using and defending themselves against atomic weapons, and 3) evaluating the enemy's atomic capabilities. However, no design secrets which would tell other countries how to build A-bombs would be revealed. To spur foreign development of industrial atomic operations, the bill would let the U.S. transmit information on 1) refining and processing source materials, 2) reactor designs, and 3) health and safety measures.

What the Fight Is About

Despite these important new proposals, the heat in the Senate was generated by the shopworn issue of public v. private steam plants. Last month President Eisenhower ordered the AEC to contract with private companies for electricity, which it will be needing beyond the amount already being supplied by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

TVA said it could supply cheaper power by building new steam plants with Government money. The Administration held that even if TVA could do the job more cheaply, the Government should stay out of the steam-plant business as much as possible. Led by Senators from the TVA area, e.g., Tennessee Democrat Albert Gore and Alabama Democrat Lister Hill, public-power enthusiasts, mostly Democrats, sided with the TVA. They decided to fight for a rider on the AEC bill that would block the Eisenhower order.

With the filibusterers' energies concentrated on the TVA fight, little attention was paid to the far more important provisions.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.