INDEPENDENCE AND DETERRENCE BRITAIN AND ATOMIC ENERGY, 1945-1952 Volume I: POLICY MAKING INDEPENDENCE AND DETERRENCE BRITAIN AND ATOMIC ENERGY, 1945-1952

Volume I POLICY MAKING by MARGARET GOWING assisted by LORNA ARNOLD

palgrave macmillan ©United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority 1974 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1974 978-0-333-15781-7

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First published 1974 Reprinted 1988

Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS L TO Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world

ISBN 978-1-349-15528-6 ISBN 978-1-349-15526-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-15526-2 Contents

List of Plates viii ~~~ n List of Abbr~fliations xii A Note on Documentation xiii

I August 1945:Retrospectand Agenda I Appendix I: Statements by the Prime Ministerand Me Churchill on the Atomic Bomb,6 August 1945 14

2 Labour's Machinery of Government 19 Ministers and their Advisory Committees 19 Defence and Production 32 Departmental Organisation 37 Legal and Democratic Control 48 Appendix 2: Diagram of Committe~s 58

3 External Policy: Brief Hope of Interdependence 63 Appendix 3: Letter from Mr Attlee to PresidentTruman, 25September 1945 78 Appendix 4: Washington Declaration, 15November 1945 82 Appendix 5: •Groves-Anderson' Memorandum, 16November 1945 85 4 External Policy: Hopes are Dupes 87 International Control 87 Anglo-American Collaboration 92 Appendix 6: Telegram from Mr Attlee to PresidentTruman, 16April 1946 124 Appendix 7: Telegram from Mr Attlee to PresidentTruman, 6 June 1946 126 vi Contents

5 External Policy: The Commonwealth and Europe 131 Canada 131 The Restof the Commonwealth 146 Europe 152

6 Deterrence 160 Programme and Purpose 160 The Decision to Make a Bomb 179 Mainly Military 185 A Hope for Nuclear Power IB9 AppendiX 8: Atomic Energy: An Immediate Policy for Great Britain (P. M. S. Blackett) 194

7 Deterrence Recalculated 209 The Size and Shape of the Programme 209 Questionsof Priority 224 Towards Nuclear Power 236

8 The Anglo-American Modus Vivendi 241 Appendix 9: The Modus Vivendi 266 Annex I: Allocations 267 Annex 2 : Areas of Co-operation between Members of the British Commonwealth 269 Annex 3: Technical Co-operation 271

9 Independence Reconsidered: I 273 New Hope of Anglo-American Integration 273 The Doldrums Again 299 The Use of the Bomb 308

10 Independence Reconsidered: II 322 Canada 323 The Rest of the Commonwealth, and Europe 329

1I The Area of Interdependence: Uranium 349 The Indispensable Element 349 Combined Operations 352 The Pattern of Supply and Demand 357 Securing Present Supplies 365 Contents vii Securing FutureSupplies 373 Conclusions 390 Appendix 10: Declaration of Trust, 13June 1944 393 Appendix II: Memorandum of Understanding with Belgium, 13 July 1951 396 Appendix I2: Joint Communique and Annex re American, Belgian and British Understandings in the Atomic Energy Field, 13July 1951 397 Appendix 13 Table I: Estimated Uranium Requirements, Deliveries and Allocations, 1946-52 400 Table 2: Belgian Congo Uranium Deliveries: Forecast and Actual 401

12 •Winston is Back' - and Cherwell Unfinished Business Towards a New Organisation Towards a New Programme

Appendix 14: Technical Note Appendix 15: Chronology of Events: April 1945­ October 1952

References

Index List of Plates

between pp. 146 and 147

1 MrAttlee in Washington (1950) 2 King George VI and the Chiefs of Staff at Buckingham Palace 3 Mr Churchill and Lord Cherwell visit Harwell (1948) 4 Lord Cherwell 5 Sir Henry Tizard 6 Sir James Chadwick 7 Sir Roger Makins 8 M. W. Perrin 9 Professor P. M. S. Blackett

The above are reproduced by permission of the following: Keystone Press Agency Ltd (I and 7); Central Press Photos Ltd (2 and 5); UK Atomic Energy Authority u); Photoreportage Ltd (4); Antony Barrington Brown (6); Camera Press Ltd (8, photograph by Tom Blau); Lotte Meitner-Graf <9). Preface

THESE two volumes are a sequel to my Britain and AtomicEnergy, 193!r1945;· they are a further instalment of the history of the British atomic energy project commissioned by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. The volumes do not speculate on the question whether the world would have been a better or a worse place if man had learned neither to releaseenergy from the fission of uranium nor to make plutonium, an extremely toxic material un­ known in nature and with a radioactive half-life of 24,000 years. They deal with problems whose scaleis microscopic by comparison: why and how Britain developed her atomic project in the yearsfrom 1945 to her first bomb test in the autumn of 1952. Volume 1, Policy Making, is concerned with 'Why' and Volume 2, Policy Execution, with 'How'. Volume 2 takes the answers to 'Why' as given in Volume 1; that is, the scientists and engineers who were responsible for carrying out the project, like the vast majority of the British population at that time, accepted the need for atomic weapons and power. Atomic policy is an important thread in the post-war history of Britain; it is woven into almost every part of that history - inter­ national, diplomatic, Commonwealth, military, constitutional, politi­ cal, administrative, economic, social, scientific, technological and medical. The making and execution of policy involved almost every layer of government and societyfrom the Prime Minister through to the military and civil hierarchies of Service officers, administrators, executives, scientists, engineers, draughtsmen and building workers. The volumes would clearly have been unmanageable if I had strayed too far into adjacent territories and I have therefore written only the necessary minimum about, for example, the Cold War or the production of aircraft to carry atomic bombs. I have omitted some things in the atomic story for lack of space and time: for example, many parts of the scientific work and (equally vital) the

• Macmillan, 1964. x Preface role of the manual workers." Even with these limitations, the great bulk and diversity of topics and material are largely responsible for the time taken to write these volumes and for their length; the detailed 'nuts and bolts' account of the project in Volume 2 seemed the more necessary because studies of sophisticated large-scale scien­ tific and technological enterprises are still only too rare. The arrangement and presentation of so complex a story have been difficult. Policy Making is mainly, though not wholly, presented as a chronological narrative as seen from Whitehall. Policy Execution is arranged by topics, and includes a detailed description of the work on the plants and the weapon; this was the only way of describing the load on the men in the project team. To help non-scientific readers, the same technical appendix is included in both books. There is inevitably an overlap between the two volumes and some overlap within each volume. This is particularly true in Policy Execution; for example, nuclear power has a chapter of its own (Chapter 19) but power problems have an important place elsewhere, for instance in the discussion of Harwell's role (Chapter 18) and in the discussion of relationships with private industry (Chapter 17)' Choosing the best order for the chapters was also difficult; in Part Two of Policy Execution ('The Enterprise ') I have grouped together the chapters about those activities which were predominantly Harwell's, although this arrangement meant separating the Harwell chapters from chapters on the factories with which Harwell scientists were intimately concerned. Perfect solutions to such problems of arrangement are rarely found and historians, like engineers, have to seek the best compromise. The books are official history in accordance with the terms ex­ plained in the preface to Britain and Atomic Energy, 1939-1945.t They are the first official history for the peacetime years to be authorised for publication by Her Majesty's Government. Although the volumes are not part of the new series of peacetime official histories which is being prepared in the Historical Section of the Cabinet Office,:t: the same general principles and procedures have

• I had also hoped to make a statistical analysis of the background of the scientists and engineers in the project. However, I leave this as an interesting topic for a socialscientist. t The'closed' period for public records is now thirty years. It was reduced from fifty in 1967. t Sec HOC Deb., 18 Dec 1¢9 (written answers, vol. 813, cols. 4II-I2). Preface xi been followed. I have been given free access to the same range of official documents. I made no attempt to write the history of atomic intelligence and the subject is almost entirely excluded. Sir Alan Bullock has acted as honorary consultant to the UK Atomic Energy Authority to ensure the maintenance of professional historical standards, but I alone am responsible for the statements made and the views expressed. The volumes were circulated for official comment to interested Government Departments who, for reasons of public policywhich I accepted as compelling, suggested a very few omissions of technical detail and an extremely small number of other alterations. Writing contemporary history has advantages and disadvantages. I have sometimes envied historians working on earlier periods since the people they write about cannot answer back. However, I am convinced that on balance contemporary history has enormous advantages, provided there are adequate documentary records by which personal memories can be checked. The circulation of drafts to people who took part in the project has yielded important historical data - not only new facts- but also evidence from leading individuals that they knew very little about crucial decisions until they read my volumes. It would be invidious to mention by name the many scientists, engineers and administrators to whom I am indebted for .their in­ exhaustible patience, helpfulness and clarity of exposition..I wish I had been able to talk to even more of them. The assistance of Mrs Lorna Arnold of the UKAEA, whose name appears on the title­ page, has been indispensable. I am deeply grateful for her devoted work in research and writing as well as in more humdrum tasks; nothing has ever been too much trouble for her. The archives sections of the various atomic energy establishmentshave given un­ wearied help. The manuscripts put a heavy load on the duplicating and typing sections of the Authority's London office, and I thank them all, especiallyMrs Patricia Suckling. Finally, my sons Nicholas and James deserve some thanks for their tolerance and understand­ ing of the anxieties of authorship. MARGARET GoWING Linacre College, Oxford October I973 List of Abbreviations

ACAE Advisory Committee on Atomic Energy AEB Atomic Energy Board AEC Atomic Energy Council AE (DR) Atomic Energy (Defence Research) Committee AECL Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd AE (M) Ministerial Committee on Atomic Energy • AE (0) Official Committee on Atomic Energy AERE Atomic Energy Research Establishment (Harwell) BEA British Electricity Authority Bepo British Experimental Pile 0 (Harwdl) CAE Controller, Atomic Energy CDA Combined Devdopment Agency CDT Combined Devdopment Trust CEA Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique COS Chief of Staff CPAE Controller of Production, Atomic Energy CPC Combined Policy Committee CPR Companhia de Radium Limitada CRL Chemical Research Laboratory DCPAE Deputy Controller of Production, Atomic Energy DRPC Defence Research Policy Committee DSIR Department of Scientific and Industrial Research EBR I Experimental breeder reactor No. I (U.S.) Gleep Graphite low energy experimental pile (Harwell) ICI Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd JCAE Joint Committee on Atomic Energy MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology PAC Public Accounts Committee RCC The Radiochemical Centre, Amersham ROF Royal Ordnance Factory scp: Select Committee on Expenditure UKAEA United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority UKCC United Kingdom Commercial Corporation UKGSM United Kingdom Geological Survey and Museum UNAEC United Nations Atomic Energy Commission USAEC United States Atomic Energy Commission A Note on Documentation

I N accordance with the practice of the official war histories, references to official papers that are not yet publicly available have been omitted: notes are confined to published material. The com­ plete documentation will, however, be available in confidential print and will be accessible to scholars when the documents concerned are open to the public. The author is grateful to the Controller of HM Stationery Office for permission to reproduce.and quote Government documents. She also acknowledges her indebtedness to the authors and publishers of all those books that have been mentioned in this work. M.G.