SUBMARINE ENGINE

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28606, 7 June 1958, Page 13

SUBMARINE ENGINE

Britain Would Buy U.S. Model

(Rec. 7 p.m.) WASHINGTON. June 5. The Congressional* Atomic Energy Committee disclosed today that Britain wants to buy a United States atomic engine as part of its programme for building up the British Fleet with nuclear submarines, United Press International reported. The proposal was revealed in the committee’s report on a bill to provide for greater exchange of United States nuclear weapons, information and materials. The bill would clear the way for an international ' agreement under which Britain could make the purchase. The transaction would be authorised under a change in the bill requested two weeks ago by Mr Lewis Strauss, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission Mr Strauss said that the Commission and the Defence Department were considering the plan. He explained that it would involve “the purchase of a United States nuclear submarine propulsion plant through a commercial contract between 1 a British firm and an American firm of their selection.”

“This proposal is based on a change in the objective of the British nuclear submarine programme to provide for the earliest possible acquisition of nuclear submarine capability in the British Fleet," Mr Strauss said. The plan would not interfere with the United States nuclear submarine programme, he said. . The committee approved the bill last week with a provision which would let Congress nullify any exchange agreements by a concurrent resolution which would not require President Eisenhower’s signature.