ATOM BOMB SECRETS

Grey River Argus, 1 February 1946, Page 5

ATOM BOMB SECRETS

U.S. EANS DISCLOSURE Talk of Blowing up the South Pole ! (Rec. 9.50). WASHINGTON, Jan. 30. The Naval Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives has approved of a legal ban being placed on disclosures to any foreign Governments of any technical data of the atom bomb tests. This proviso, however, includes a clause giving the Secretaries of War and of the Navy leeway in disclosing data to foreign Governments. Representative Rickenbacker, in a speech, proposed that atom bombs could be used to prospect for gold and other minerals in South Polar regions. He said that the explosive force of the bombs could be used to blast the South Pole’s icecap to fragments. It could be used to unlock doors that withheld from human knowledge potential riches in Antarctica.

Mr Rickenbacker conceded, however, that his suggestion, at first flush, sounded like a fantastic story from Jules Vernes’ pen. He said: “But I believe it is well within the reach of possible execution. Certainly, in these days, when radar probes the moon, it should not be too difficult to solve the mystery of a hidden continent at the bottom of the globe.”