VOLUME II A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION ATOMIC SHIELD, 1947 / 1952 RICHARD G. HEWLETT AND FRANCIS DUNCAN 1969 ii ATOMIC SHIELD / 1947-1952 Contents Foreword by the Chairman, Historical Advisory Committee xi Preface xiii 1 The Terrible Responsibility 1 2 Uncertain Mandate 17 The Veterans . 17 The Human Equation . 21 Personnel Security . 26 Labor Crisis . 29 Whither Research? . 30 Weapons . 36 Research and Development . 37 Field Operations . 39 Balancing Production and Research . 41 First Summation . 46 Report to the President . 51 Confirmation . 53 First Decisions . 58 Mission to Educate . 61 3 First Venture 63 Atomic Arsenal . 64 Adjusting Priorities . 68 Toward a Weapon Stockpile . 70 Reorienting the Laboratories . 73 Reactors at Clinton . 75 Reactors for the Military . 79 iii iv ATOMIC SHIELD / 1947-1952 Exit Monsanto . 84 Opening Doors for Research . 87 A Sobering Decision . 92 Construction at Hanford . 94 Talent Search . 95 Shadow of Security . 97 4 The Peaceful Image 107 Ingredients of a Research Policy . 108 Completing the Organization . 113 Clinton Again . 114 Reactors at Clinton . 116 Military Reactors . 117 Bohemian Grove . 119 Foreign Distribution of Isotopes . 121 A Policy for Research . 122 Biology and Medicine . 125 The Future of Nuclear Power . 127 A Course for Reactor Development . 129 The Reactor Development Group . 131 The Fate of Clinton . 134 Black Christmas . 137 Year-End Reflections . 139 5 Call to Arms 141 The Old Order Changes . 142 Relations with the Military . 143 New Life at Los Alamos . 146 Operational Responsibilities . 150 Activities at Sandia . 153 Plans for Sandstone ............................155 Production Planning . 156 Strengthening Production Operations . 160 Raw Materials . 163 Trouble in Europe . 165 6 Nuclear Arsenal 171 Change in Command . 171 Partners in Arms? . 176 Sandstone .................................179 CONTENTS v An Accoutrement of Power . 183 Consolidating Operations . 191 The Battle Rejoined . 197 7 Atomic Power: Quandary and Quagmire 205 Location of the High-Flux . 206 Military Pressures . 209 Centralization—Collapse . 214 Organization and the Navy . 218 Wilson Drafts a Program . 220 A Question of Safeguards . 223 Struggling Toward Decisions . 226 A Reactor for the Navy . 228 A Director and a Program . 230 Selecting the Idaho Site . 232 Implications of the Lexington Report . 233 Argonne and Westinghouse . 234 Shifting Goals at Schenectady . 235 Progress on the Materials Testing Reactor . 236 Summer Appraisal . 239 Priorities . 242 8 Research: New Approaches to a New Age 245 The National Laboratories . 246 Probing the Microcosmos . 250 The Accelerator: Key to the Nucleus . 251 Skirting the Relativistic Barrier . 253 Building for Higher Energies . 254 Looking Toward the Billion-Volt Range . 257 Creating for Discovery . 259 Radiation and the Plant World . 263 Radiation and Man . 266 Meeting the Demand . 267 Quest for the Meson . 269 Competition for Power . 271 Organizing Biology and Medicine . 273 Distribution of Radioisotopes . 274 Fellowships in the Nuclear Sciences . 275 Biomedical Research . 276 New Avenues for Basic Research . 277 vi ATOMIC SHIELD / 1947-1952 A New Species? . 281 9 Cooperation with the British: Untangling the Alliance 283 The Washington Scene . 283 The UN: A Falling Market . 286 Continuing Deadlock . 290 Forming a New Policy . 292 Need for Action . 296 Preparing a Position . 298 Negotiations . 303 The Modus Vivendi . 307 10 Cooperation with the British: Anxiety and Tension 309 News from Britain . 310 Challenge to Cooperation . 311 Breakdown . 314 The British Press Forward . 318 Formulating a New Policy . 320 Meeting at Blair House . 324 Quest for Congressional Support . 328 Preparing for Negotiations . 330 Negotiations-First Phase . 331 Interlude . 332 Negotiations Again . 334 Fuchs and Failure . 338 11 The Art of Administration 343 The Lilienthal-Wilson Approach . 344 Appropriations—Business as Usual . 347 The Special Relationship . 352 Reappointment—A Question of Strategy . 355 The President Acts . 358 Battle Avoided . 359 Decentralizing Security . ..