Press release by United States Atomic Energy Commission, Special Session of Radioisotope Technique Course To Be Opened to Foreign Scientists, December 6, 1954

WASHINGTON, D. C., December 6, 1954. Completion of arrangements for a special four-week course in radioisotope (tracer atom) techniques for scientists and technicians from the 48 countries qualified to receive shipments of U. S. manufactured isotopes was announced today by Chairman Lewis L. Strauss of the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission.

It is the first of the several supporting projects launched by the Commission in furtherance of the President's proposal for an international atomic agency to be ready for operation.

The special course-identical with the training given six times a year at the Commission's Oak Ridge, Tenn., installation-will open on May 2, 1955, and, like the regular sessions, will be limited to 32 enrollees. Applications must be on file with the U. S. State Department by February 1, 1955.

"This unclassified training in the use of radioisotopes has been available to scientists and technicians of friendly nations on a limited basis from its inception," Chairman Strauss said, "but due to the popularity of the course in the United States, only a small number of persons from abroad could be accommodated in recent years.

"Therefore, in line with other steps being taken by the Commission in support of President Eisenhower's atoms-for-peace program, this special session is being arranged. Provisions will also be made for admitting a limited number of qualified foreign research workers in subsequent sessions of the training course as well as to take care of a backlog of applications. The Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies is in charge of the program."

Setting aside this special session solely for foreign participants marks a change in policy of the administration of the isotopes courses conducted by the Institute, and educational corporation of 32 colleges and universities in the South under contract to the AEC. It is hoped that in subsequent sessions, several foreign applicants can be accepted for each session.

The purpose of the Oak Ridge course is to permit qualified research workers and technicians to gain sufficient facility in the use of radioisotopes, or tracer atoms, to apply this important technique in their own work. Radioisotopes are considered one of the most versatile and efficient of all research tools inasmuch as they enable scientists to chart the course of individual elements in complicated chemical and biological processes.

During the four weeks' intensive training, basic fundamentals in radioisotope use are taught. The participants learn how to use and calibrate radiation detection instruments, how to purify and separate radioactive materials from inert or other radioactive materials, and how to apply them to a variety of chemical and biological research problems. Background lectures in nuclear physics and chemistry and special-topic seminars are combined with laboratory work.

The approximately 2,000 men and women who have received this training since it began in 1948 have found it useful in a wide range of scientific, medical, agricultural, and industrial areas although completion of the course does not qualify physicians to use radioisotopes in general practice.

Prospective enrollees must have a bachelor's degree; adequate training and experience in the field in which they propose to use isotopes; and an understanding of the English language. Application forms for admission to this special course are expected to be available at U. S. embassies and legations abroad within a few days.

The forms also may be obtained direct from the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies, Box 117, Oak Ridge, Tenn., or from the applicant's embassy or legation in Washington. These forms contain instructions for processing and the necessary procedures must be completed and the applications received at the U. S. State Department in Washington not later than February 1, 1955.

Statement by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, “Anniversary of President Eisenhower's 'Atoms for Peace' Proposal," December 8, 1954

A year ago today the President of the United States made his momentous "Atoms for Peace" proposal for international cooperation. I think there is much reason for sober satisfaction if we survey today the progress which has been made toward fulfilling the promise of this unprecedented proposal.

In the United Nations, the General Assembly on December 4, 1954, unanimously endorsed the efforts which have been made to implement the President's proposal, while expressing the hope that an International Atomic Energy Agency, as urged by the President, "be established without delay.

Even the Soviet Union joined in this vote although expressing certain qualifications in its support for the present plan and without proffering any material support for the Agency at this time. The acceptance by the United Nations of the President's "Atoms for Peace" plan constitutes the most hopeful development in this field since the inception of the atomic age.

During the past year steady progress has been made in pursuit of the goal proposed by the President December 8, 1953.

We have conducted negotiations with the Soviet Union looking to its contribution of fissionable material to an international agency to be created and used to bring the peaceful benefits of atomic energy to the whole world.

I conferred several times with Foreign Minister Molotov on this matter at Berlin and Geneva and several notes were exchanged. Despite initial lack of interest by the Soviet Union in the United States proposal, our perseverance in this negotiation finally has resulted in an apparent change in the Soviet position.

Late in September the USSR indicated a willingness to resume the discussions. Since then further notes have been exchanged on a confidential basis.

We do not relinquish the hope expressed by the President December 8, 1953, that the United States and the USSR can in this way "open up a new channel for peaceful discussion, and initiate at least a new approach to the many difficult problems that must be solved in both private and public conversations, if the world is to shake off the inertia imposed by fear, and is to make positive progress toward peace."

However, as I said in my address to the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, 1954,

"The United States remains ready to negotiate with the Soviet Union. But we shall no longer suspend our efforts to establish an international atomic agency.

"The United States is determined that President Eisenhower's proposal shall not languish until it dies. It will be nurtured and developed. We shall press on in close partnership with those nations which, inspired by the ideals of the United Nations Charter, can make this great new force a tool of the humanitarian and of the statesman, and not merely a fearsome addition to the arsenal of war."

The United States has in the meantime, gone ahead with concrete steps proving our intense interest in developing the peacetime aspects of atomic energy and making these benefits available to the world.

For example, at Shippingport, Pennsylvania on Labor Day, ground was broken for the world's first commercial size atomic power plant. In a nationwide broadcast on this occasion the President proclaimed this nation's willingness to share atomic technology for similar purposes with other countries of good will.

Following upon the initiative of the United States, the United Nations is sponsoring a conference on the peaceful uses of atomic energy. This will be held next year and should develop clearly the current state of peaceful atomic energy technology.

The President has authorized the Atomic Energy Commission to allocate 100 kilograms of enriched uranium of non-weapons grade, for use in research reactors which foreign countries may construct. The British have also generously announced their intention to allocate 20 kilograms of such material. Such reactors would greatly augment the world's peaceful research capabilities. The allocation of this material probably constitutes the single most important step which the United States has taken to implement its firm support for international cooperation to develop quickly the peacetime benefits of atomic energy.

An essential part of this program for international cooperation is the authorization given by the 83rd Congress in amending the Atomic Energy Act to permit the United States to provide information and fissionable material, under appropriate safeguards to other countries for non-military uses.

This assistance in the construction of research reactors is but one of the interim programs which the United States is undertaking during the period while the Agency is being formed.

In order that nationals of other countries may develop nuclear skills, the Atomic Energy Commission is setting up a reactor training school which will be open to qualified engineers and scientists. The Department of State will shortly transmit to our diplomatic missions abroad instructions as to applications for such training.

A special course in radioisotope techniques for scientists from overseas will be offered next May at the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies.

In addition, training programs and courses in the utilization of atomic energy in biology, medicine, and agriculture will be offered next year at various Institutions throughout the United States to qualified foreign students. Through technical cooperation programs, special arrangements are being made to supply this type of assistance to individuals from under-developed areas.

Collections of all unclassified and declassified information on atomic energy, which has been published by the United States Government, are being made available to other countries.

I might add that not only the government, but American private and philanthropic groups are interested in furthering international development of the atom for peace.

One example of such cooperation is given by the group of citizens who set up the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship Program a year ago. I understand that in the allocation of its resources in the coming year, this Program will begin to coordinate with some of the foregoing activities.

It is particularly gratifying to see how the President's proposal has called forth many offers of materials and other support from other nations. We value, as well, the backing pledged by many nations in their statements wishing us well in this venture which may in due course increase production and bring increasing well-being to the under-developed areas of the world. This is in keeping with the great American tradition of finding new ways whereby a free society can enrich human life, materially, intellectually, and spiritually, and can share those fruits of liberty with men everywhere.

This, then, is an accounting of our efforts during the past year to implement President Eisenhower's historic "Atoms for Peace" proposal. We will continue to strive "to help solve the fearful atomic dilemma-to devote our entire heart and mind to find the way by which the miraculous inventiveness of man shall not be dedicated to his death, but consecrated to his life."

Excerpts of Address by Sterling Cole, Chairman, Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, 83rd Congress, Before_the_InService Training Course for Science Teachers, Board of Education, City of New York, January 12, 1955

To appear before an audience concerned with the education of young America would in any event be a great pleasure, and to address such an audience on the social and international consequences of atomic energy is a privilege for which I am deeply grateful.

Regarded as a historical landmark, the splitting of the atom ranks with man's first successful effort to use fire for his own purposes, with the invention of the wheel, and with the development of the steam engine. Each of these earlier inventions were far more than mere triumphs of man's ingenuity. They set in motion a whole chain of events revolutionizing man's los in peace and war. The atom will do no less.

The dimensions of the atomic revolution can be comprehended in a simple equation: A single pound of Uranium-235-an atomic material useful either for manufacturing atomic bombs or for fueling peacetime atomic power reactors-contains as much energy as almost three million pounds of coal. This fantastic power locked in the nuclei of the heavy elements can eventually end civilization as we know it, or else bring untold material wealth to the world. In the form of atomic weapons, Uranium-235 or plutonium can destroy the urban basis of present day world culture. In the form of fuel for atomic power reactors, these self-same materials can light our cities and run the

machines of our factories with unparalleled efficiency and economy. Atomic radiation-if loosed during the explosion of a nuclear bombcan destroy life. Liberated from a reactor designed for medical therapy, this identical radiation can prolong and save life.

This is another way of saying that, like any other force in nature, atomic energy has no ethics of its own. The final meaning of atomic energy for world civilization will depend upon man-upon man's wisdom or his folly, upon his moral courage or his moral weakness. If we make an accounting of how the atom has affected the world as of 1955-a dozen years after man first achieved a self-sustaining chain reaction the debits on our balance sheet may appear to outweigh the assets. On the good side is the fact that American leadership in the development and manufacture of atomic weapons has contributed enormously to preventing another world war, and to keeping the future open for real peace. We and our allies face ruthless adversaries who outnumber us in raw manpower, and who aim at total domination of the world. Yet American atomic supremacy-more than any other single factor of the free world's military strength-now keeps the Kremlin from achieving its mad goal. For this we should all give thanks, remembering in the meanwhile that true and lasting peace as contrasted with today's shifting and uneasy truce-must be built on firmer foundations than mere military strength.

On the good side also, each week that passes brings new demonstrations of what the atom can accomplish when bent to the ways of peace. In industry, atomic energy in the form of so-called radioactive tracers-is finding a host of important applications-beginning with such mundane, but important, uses as increasing the efficiency of detergents, and ending with completely new techniques of product control in steel plants.

The list of medical applications of the atom is even more impressive. At the Brookhaven National Laboratory, not far from where we meet today, encouraging work is now under way in treating cancer of the brain through atomic radiation. As a diagnostic tool, the atom has already proved the greatest boon to medicine since the invention of the microscope five hundred years ago. The time is rapidly nearing, I am sure, when medical applications of the atom will annually save more lives than we lost in the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The catalog of constructive uses of the atom would of course be incomplete without mention of atomic power. Our nation's first fullscale peacetime atomic power reactor is now being constructed near Pittsburgh. Today, electricity secured from atomic fuels is expensive when compared with the cheap conventional power we possess in most parts of our nation. But as our knowledge of the reactor art increases, this situation will change. Within another one or two decades, a major portion of the new generating capacity installed each year in the United States should run on atomic fuels.

Here in America, we are blessed with abundant supplies of cheap coal and hydroelectric power. We may therefore find it difficult to realize what an enormous boon atomic power can confer upon less fortunate nations. Western Europe--England, in particular-has long since exhausted its best reserves of coal. The plight of Asia, Africa, and South America is even more serious. Throughout those continents, coal and hydroelectric power are scarce, or even non-existent. As a result, every major effort to raise the standards of life in the