ATOM POWER IN U.S.

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28451, 4 December 1957, Page 13

ATOM POWER IN U.S.

“Inadequate And Confused” (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) WASHINGTON, December 2. Mr Carl Durham (Democrat, North Carolina), chairman of the Congressional Atomic Energy Committee, said today the United States atomic power programme was inadequate and confused. He called on the Atomic Energy Commission for a reappraisal of Its aims. Mr Durham made his views known in a letter to Mr Lewis Strauss, chairman of the commission. Among other things, Mr Durham renewed a proposal for a 10-year demonstration power reactor programme to provide a long-term assurance to private industry of Government aid for private and public atomic power development. “There appears to be considerable confusion as to what our objectives and policies are, or should be,” he said.

“However, the general consensus seems to be that the current atomic power development programme is not adequate, particularly if we take into account the objective of world leadership in reactor technology.” Mr Durham’s letter appealed Io be another indication of dissatisfaction among some members of Congress over the development of the peace-time uses of atomic energy, particularly in relation to Soviet claims of alomic power successes.