ATOMS-FOR-PEACE PROGRAMME

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27695, 27 June 1955, Page 11

ATOMS-FOR-PEACE PROGRAMME

U.S. Doubles Amount Of Nuclear Fuel (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 7 p.m.) NEW YORK, June 24. The United States Government has doubled the amount of nuclear fuel it will supply to friendly nations under the atoms-for-peace programme. This action was announced today by Mr Lewis Strauss, chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, in a speech to the Overseas Press Club.

He said President Eisenhower has authorised the commission to increase the nuclear fuel allocation for friendly nations from' the 2201 b announced on November 15 to 4401 b.

The fuel is so-called enriched uranium—not usable in weapons—and may be used only in reactors designed for scientific research and the production 'of radioactive tracer atoms for science, industry,' and agriculture. So far the United States has initialled atom-sharing agreements with 22 nations under the atoms-for-peace programme launched by President Eisenhower in 1953.

The 4401 b of enriched uranium is enough to fuel scores of low-power atomic reactors and at least 30 of an up-to-date and extremely versatile kind developed by commission scientists at Chicago. It would run 30 reactors of the Chicago model steadily for five years, after which two-thirds of the fuel stock would still be left for further use after processing. “Symbol of Hope” Mr Strauss said that the atoms-for-peace programme had mushroomed to the point where it had become “a symbol of hope to free but apprehensive peoples.”

He said the programme was a powerful reply to Communist efforts to picture the United States as a nation whose nuclear energies were devoted entirely to producing weapons for "imperialist” war.

Mr Strauss said the commission was devoting more and more of its efforts to the development of peaceful uses of the atom and was releasing more and more information about them. He disclosed that the commission expected in the near future to act on proposals recently submitted by private American industries to build nuclear power stations costing a total of more than 200,000,000 dollars and generating 700,000 kilowatts of electrical energy.