JOINT COMMITTEE ON ÅTomio EnergY

Section 202 Hearings on the Development, Growth, and State of the Atomic Energy Industry, 1957

SUGGESTED TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

Listed below are matters of growing importance which the Joint Committee believes may not have received sufficient attention in the past during the section 202 hearings. These subjects are in addition to the major topics usually covered and are by no means comprehensive in scope. There may well be other matters which individual witnesses will wish to discuss :

1. Reactor types other than for electric power.

2. Fuel fabrication and reprocessing.

3. Waste disposal.

4. Pricing policy.

5. Adequacy of dissemination of technical information to industry.

6. International market for reactors and components.

With respect to the civilian atomic power program, in addition to information on progress in general, and with respect to particular projects, the committee would be interested in information on technical and other problems encountered, whether initial schedules and cost estimates remain the same, and what, if any, changes are being made in them.

The proposed program of governmental indemnity against reactor hazards, and proposals for accelerating the nuclear power program, will be treated in general only and will be the subject of more detailed discussions in later hearings.

[Release No. 71 from the office of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, January 22, 1957]

The Joint Committee on Atomic Energy plans to hold public hearings beginning on Tuesday, February 19, to receive testimony from representatives of the Atomic Energy Commission, industry, and other interested individuals and organizations on the development, growth, and state of the atomic-energy industry, it was announced today by Representative Carl T. Durham, chairman of the committee. Section 202 of the 1954 Atomic Energy Act requires that such hearings be held during the first 60 days of each new session of Congress. Purpose of the hearings is to provide an opportunity for representatives of industry and other interested persons to appear before the committee to present their views on the peacetime atomic-energy program and the laws governing that program, together with any suggested changes they believe necessary to assure maximum progress. The hearings also provide a means for keeping the committee up to date on developments and needs of the atomic-energy industry.

In commenting on the hearings, Representative Durham stated:

The

"I would like to emphasize the importance which the Joint Committee attaches to these bearings, and I hope that all who desire to be heard will take this opportunity to present their comments for the committee's information. committee must have such information if it is to discharge its responsibilities effectively."

The hearings are tentatively scheduled for February 19, 20, and 21, and February 26, 27, and 28, depending upon the number of witnesses who wish to appear. It is presently planned to have the Atomic Energy Commission representatives lead off the first day and to have industrial and other interested witnesses appear on the days following. Those who do not wish to appear personally will be given the opportunity of presenting statements for the record. Further information may be obtained from the committee staff, room F-88, the Capitol.

This year we hoped to emphasize some new points and see some new faces, as well as the old standbys. We will see some new faces I hope. Most of the old standbys from industry have not appeared, although they have filed statements.

Let me hasten to add that I believe these hearings do some good. By focusing interest on certain questions, problems may be resolved and action encouraged. We were pleased, for example, to note that AEC has just announced a policy on fuel reprocessing-a problem which was the first item on our agenda for these hearings.

I do not think the absence of some of our industrial friends means lack of interest. Like many of us on the Joint Committee, industry may be perplexed at the situation we find ourselves in.

Some of the things which perplex us are the following:

1. Although we see steady progress in our technology, the technical and engineering problems encountered appear to be considerably greater than anticipated in many lines. This discouraging note applies to both Government-financed and privately financed projects.

The Joint Sommittee was informed last Friday that cost estimates for 2 major power-reactor projects-1 private and 1 Government financed-have increased approximately $15 million, which amounts to 20 to 40 percent of original estimates. We have been informed privately of similar cost increases on other projects. Schedules of completion on some projects have also apparently been extended, or should be extended.

2. Although the immediate financial incentives in this country for reactors does not appear good for the next few years, the need for reactors abroad is apparently very great and immediate. Thus the "three wise men” of Euratom indicated that Euratom needed 3 million kilowatts of atomic power in 1963 and 15 million by 1967.

This would mean 30 reactors the size of Detroit Edison by 1963 and 150 by 1967. This is a lot of reactors, but AEC and the State Department say the goal is feasible. I do not need to point any moral from the above.

I do hope these hearings, and those which follow it, may help to clarify and resolve these and other problems which perplex us.

Mr. Strauss, I understand that you will lead off for the Commission this morning. I want to thank you and your staff for your excellent cooperation with the Joint Committee staff in planning and preparing for the hearings, and in getting copies of your statements to the committee staff and members in sufficient time so that we could adequately review it.

Mr. Strauss, we are glad to have you with us and I understand you have a prepared statement. I believe it would be in the interests of expediting the hearings if we would first listen to your summary statement, and then question you. If it is agreeable with you, we will include in the record at the end of this day, the detailed statements submitted by the Commission.

(The detailed statements, covering major areas of interest, appear, beginning on p. 77.)

STATEMENTS OF LEWIS L. STRAUSS, CHAIRMAN; DR. W. F. LIBBY, MEMBER; THOMAS E. MURRAY, MEMBER; AND HAROLD S. VANCE, MEMBER OF THE UNITED STATES ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION (ACCOMPANIED BY K. E. FIELDS, GENERAL MANAGER; R. E. HOLLINGSWORTH, ASSISTANT GENERAL MANAGER FOR ADMINISTRATION; WILLIAM MITCHELL, GENERAL COUNSEL; E. J. BLOCH, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF PRODUCTION; H. N. ESKILDSON, CHIEF OF ADMINISTRATION (ACTING), DIVISION OF PRODUCTION; W. KENNETH DAVIS, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF REACTOR DEVELOPMENT; DR. C. L. DUNHAM, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE; JOHN A. HALL, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS; JESSE C. JOHNSON, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF RAW MATERIALS; DR. T. H. JOHNSON, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF RESEARCH; C. L. MARSHALL, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF CLASSIFICATION; D. F. MUSSER, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF NUCLEAR MATERIALS MANAGEMENT; C. A. NELSON, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF INSPECTION; H. L. PRICE, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF CIVILIAN APPLICATION; MORSE SALISBURY, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF INFORMATION SERVICE; OSCAR S. SMITH, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF ORGANIZATION AND PERSONNEL; DON S. BURROWS, CONTROLLER, DIVISION OF FINANCE; A. TAMMARO, ASSISTANT GENERAL MANAGER FOR RESEARCH AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT; BRYAN F. LaPLANTE, SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE GENERAL MANAGER)

Mr. STRAUSS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I should like to begin this statement by recording the great loss which we of the Commission have sustained through the death of our well-loved colleague, Dr. John von Neumann, on February 8, after a long and cruel illness.

At our first meeting following his death, we adopted a resolution expressive of our grief. In view, Mr. Chairman, of your inclusion in the record of your remarks in the Congress on the same occasion, I would like to request that this resolution by the Commission be included as a part of the record this morning.

The CHAIRMAN. Without objection, it is so included. (The resolution is as follows:)

A RESOLUTION BY THE ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION

With a profound realization of the loss that we have suffered in the death of our well-loved colleague, John von Neumann, we meet today in sorrowful recognition of the irreplaceability of his talents and of the tragedy to us as individuals, to the Commission, and to the Nation.

A man blessed with extraordinary intellectual gifts, preeminent in his generation in the sciences, the value of his contributions to the work of this Commission is truly incalculable. His disciplined mind simplified the most difficult problems and enabled wise decisions to be reached. His human qualities, personal charm, his warmth, sense of humor and his wide sympathy endeared him to every member of the organization, and the particular place he made for himself in our affections cannot be filled.

To his widow and the members of his family whose grief and affliction we share, we, his colleagues, extend our heartfelt sympathy.

Mr. STRAUSS. It has been a rewarding experience for the Commission and the members of the Commission's staff-in accordance with the requirements of section 202 of the Atomic Energy Actto review the growth of the atomic energy industry during the past year. On a subsequent occasion I hope you will afford me an opportunity in executive session to testify on weapons development, and to deal with several misapprehensions which are now on the record.

All of us, of course, who have been associated with the day-by-day developments in the atom's industrial expansion, have watched with increasing satisfaction the steadily mounting peaceful uses of nuclear energy in the 12-month period. The detailed record is, we believe, an impressive account of the world leadership to which our scientists, engineers, and American industry have jointly contributed to develop nuclear energy for defense and for peaceful progress.

In the interest of avoiding repetitive testimony-and with respect for the demands upon the time of your committee-we will here provide a concise résumé of the detailed written testimony which has been in your hands for the past several days.

Since you have been kind enough, Mr. Chairman, to say some pleasant things about our staff, I should like to reciprocate with respects to your own staff. We have had the best of cooperation from the staff of the Joint Committee.

No summary can anticipate and identify all of the points of specific interest to your committee. The project is, as you know, very large and very complex. Therefore, at the conclusion of these summary remarks my colleagues and I will try to answer your questions and amplify any of the portions of my statement or the prepared material already submitted to you.

My colleagues on the Commission, Dr. Libby, Mr. Vance, and Mr. Murray; our General Manager, General Fields; and the directors of the staff divisions concerned are here to furnish further information as your interest may develop.

Since the Commission reported to you a year ago, pursuant to section 202 of the act, the progress which has been made in developing an atomic-energy industry free of Government monopoly has embraced additional areas of work and a large number of projects.

The Commission, for its part, has continued to develop basic technology and to provide both the necessary supplies and the services contributing to the sound growth of such an industry. Not only have private investors been able to move forward in supplying materials and services at home and abroad, but their long-range planning has been facilitated by definitive pricing and other policies.

The Commission, in its role of partner in this development, has adhered to the mandate given to it by the Congress in the 1954 act-that is to say, the requirements that the development, use, and control of atomic energy shall be directed so as "to strengthen free competition in private enterprise.

When your committee received testimony at the first of these hearings in early 1955, the atomic-energy industry was but a few months removed from its original status of a Government monopoly.

Today, in the space of only 2 years, the forces of traditional American free enterprise may be seen moving forward on a broad front. They already have to their credit numerous solid accomplishments,

resulting from the application of competitive cost-reducing incentives to the new nuclear technology.

During much of this 2-year period, industry has been familiarizing itself with the technology opened to it by our "access program" and the comprehensive declassification of nonweapon technical data which we have brought about. Industry also has embarked upon a period of building up research and development facilities and acquiring teams of scientists and engineers to operate those facilities.

The latter requirement has not been an easy one for industry to meet, and in this era of rapidly expanding technological activity and an apparent shortage of technical manpower in all branches of science and industry this difficulty has been accentuated.

Particularly noteworthy has been the progress achieved during the past year in those sections of the atomic-energy industry engaged in the development, construction, and operation of power-producing nuclear reactors. The construction of privately built and privately operated plants for critical experiments, materials testing, and for the fabrication of fuel elements already is well underway.

Concerns which supply such essential reactor materials as graphite, boron, zirconium, and special alloys are rapidly learning the special requirements of the atomic-energy industry. This is true also of the firms which manufacture instruments, controls, and other components for reactors.

As regards companies doing the actual construction of reactors, at least 21 different American firms are either presently building, or have orders to build, civilian research or power reactors.

As the members of your committee know, electric power from nuclear fission is now provided for all the facilities of the great Argonne Laboratory from the boiling-water reactor which formally began operation there on February 9, an event which, I am happy to say, was attended by the chairman and several members of the Joint Committee. The boiling-water reactor thus became the first harvest of the Commission's experimental power program inaugurated 3 years ago to test the feasibility of different types of civilian-power reactors.

Before the current calendar year is ended, 5-and perhaps 6-reactors, including the boiling-water reactor, will be delivering electrical power in the United States at various points from coast to coast. Four of these 6 projects were launched under the Commission's experimental-power program, the largest being the full-scale, central-station Duquesne-Westinghouse atomic powerplant at Shippingport, Pa., with its capacity of 60,000 to 100,000 electric kilowatts, the world's first such plant devoted entirely to serving civilian needs.

Before the Shippingport plant opens, commercially distributed power is scheduled to flow from the sodium reactor built for the Commission by North American Aviation at Santa Susana, Calif., and also from General Electric's prototype powerplant at Vallecitos, Calif. The Army package powerplant at Fort Belvoir, Va., built by a subsidiary of the American Locomotive Co., will be delivering electricity into the post's power system this spring. I believe that will be in April.

The homogeneous-reactor experiment at Oak Ridge, although having encountered technical difficulties in its nonnuclear system, is expected to come into operation this year and supply electric power to the great laboratory complex there.