U. S. PARTICIPATION IN THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE PEACEFUL USES OF ATOMIC ENERGY Outstanding among activities during the last 6 months intended to forward the President's Atoms-for-Peace program was United States participation in the International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, convened by the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, August 8-20, 1955. The Conference was initially proposed by the United States, and the United States Delegation,1 took a leading part in the work of the Conference. The formal report to the Secretary of State, on behalf of the United States Official Representatives states, "Every indication points to the conclusion that the Conference must be regarded as an unqualified success. The statements of the delegates of the 73 nations represented, and of the heads of states who sent messages there, the interest of the public, and the comments of the news agencies throughout the world, all support this judgment. It is equally the considered consensus of the Official Representatives of the United States and their advisers." The 73 nations plus the eight specialized agencies of the United Nations represented at Geneva sent to the Conference a total of 1,428 delegates of whom 327 were accredited by the United States. In addition to 902 representatives of the news media of the world, there also were 1,334 official observers, principally from nongovernmental organizations, academic institutions and industrial concerns. The volume of scientific and technical information exchanged is evidenced by the fact that the United Nations has announced that 16 volumes will be required to publish the Conference proceedings. Twenty-three nations and four United Nations agencies submitted to the Conference a total of 1,067 scientific and technical papers, of which the United States contributed 512, or about 48 percent of the total. From all the papers, the United Nations selected 450 papers for oral presentation and discussion at the Conference, of which 176 were United States papers, or 39 percent of the total. According to the Chairman's report, "the quality of the papers submitted, and the discussions of the papers, matched the best scientific 'The United States Official Representatives (as listed in the Eighteenth Seminannual Report) were: Lewis L. Strauss, Chairman AEC, Chairman; Willard F. Libby, Commissioner AEC, Vice Chairman; Detlev W. Bronk, President National Academy of Sciences, and President Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research; Isidor I. Rabi, Chairman, General Advisory Committee, AEC, Higgins Professor of Physics, Columbia University; Shields Warren, Scientific Director, Cancer Research Institute, New England Deaconess Hospital. General view of the opening session of the International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, meeting in the Assembly Hall of the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. The photograph is taken from the right of the speakers' rostrum. forums. The discussions among delegates were deemed generally free and frank. The spirit of cooperation and friendliness among delegates of all the Nations represented at the Conference was entirely in harmony with that engendered a few weeks before in Geneva during the Conference of President Eisenhower with the Prime Ministers of France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the United Kingdom." The report continued: "The measure of the Conference's success in all these particulars was the unanimity of response to President Eisenhower's expressed hope. . . that another international conference on peaceful uses of atomic energy could be held within two or three years. Prime Minister Bulganin of the USSR later made a similar suggestion in a formal message sent to the Conference closing session. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold in his report on the Conference to the United Nations General Assembly on September 14, 1955, stated that the President of the Conference, Homi J. Bhabha, of India, had found that there was 'Universal sentiment . . . for another scientific conference . . . to carry forward the work so well begun.' It is gratifying to be able to report the conviction of the United States Official Representatives that this Conference has made a genuine contribution toward opening the way for world-wide cooperation to place atomic energy at the peaceful service of all nations. President Eisenhower's leadership in this broad effort was generously praised. Speakers at the Conference referred repeatedly to the President's address before the United Nations General Assembly on December 8, 1953, in which he declared: '. . . The United States pledges before you-and therefore before the world-its determination to help solve the fearful atomic dilemma . . . to devote its 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.'" PATTERN OF CONFERENCE The agenda of the Conference, held in the United Nations European headquarters, the Palais des Nations, on the outskirts of Geneva, was balanced between plenary sessions on general subjects and concurrent sections on scientific and technical subjects. There were 8 half-days of plenary sessions and, partly overlapping with them, 52 technical sections, the latter generally held in parallel, simultaneous forums starting the afternoon of August 10 and continuing daily except Sunday, through the morning of August 20. Plenary sessions dealt with such broad topics as future world needs for energy, the economics of atomic power, programs of international cooperation, and scientific education. The technical sections discussed research and power reactors; reactor therapy; reactor physics; fuel elements; fissionable products and their extraction; raw materials exploration and processing; waste disposal and health protection; radioactive materials in diagnosis and therapy, in industry and in agriculture; and production, handling, and use of radioisotopes. In addition to the general and technical sessions of the Conference, a series of 10 evening lectures was given in which leading men of science from six nations discussed matters of general scientific or public interest. Nine nations presented technical exhibits at the Palais des Nations: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Norway, Sweden, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom and the United States. An educational and commercial exposition was held simultaneously at the Palais des Expositions in downtown Geneva. This was not an official part of the Conference, but was under the auspices of the Swiss Federal Council, the United Nations, the State Council of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, and the Administrative Council of the 369460-562 |