The U. S. Official Representatives' bench at the Conference at an early session. Right to left, Chairman Lewis L. Strauss, Mrs. Laura Fermi, U. S. Conference Historian, Dr. Willard F. Libby, and (standing) Dr. John A. Hall.

City of Geneva. The Governments of France and the United Kingdom sponsored commercial exhibits. The United States sponsored an educational "Atoms-for-Peace" exhibit in connection with the independent participation by United States commercial and industrial organizations.

A program of documentary and technical motion pictures was presented daily in a small theatre at the Palais des Nations, rotating 21 films prepared in the four official languages of the Conference: English, French, Russian and Spanish. Canada presented two films, France two, Norway one, the USSR three, the United Kingdom five, and the United States eight.

The Conference was unique among international scientific forums in that it was the first to be held in which all phases of a broad field were covered, from fundamental biology and physics, to their applications in medicine, engineering, and industry.

The International Conference evolved from earlier United States plans to hold a conference on peaceful uses of atomic energy to ad

vance its Atoms-for-Peace program. The first public suggestion for such a conference was made by Chairman Lewis L. Strauss, of the Atomic Energy Commission, in an address on April 19, 1954, when he announced on authority of President Eisenhower:

"... the President's intention to arrange . . . an international conference of scientists... devoted to an exploration of the benign and peaceful uses of atomic energy."

After the United Nations, on the motion initiated by the United States, undertook in December 1954 to sponsor the Conference, the Atomic Energy Commission was requested by the Secretary of State to undertake preparations for United States technical and scientific participation in the Conference and Chairman Strauss was asked to serve as Chairman of the United States Delegation. At Chairman Strauss' request, Dr. Isidor I. Rabi had been directing preliminary plans for the Conference since April 1954.

When Dr. Rabi became United States Representative on the United Nations Conference Advisory Committee, the Chairman selected, as director of United States technical preparations, Dr. George L. Weil, a consultant to industry, who had been closely associated with nuclear energy work since 1940, as an associate of Dr. Enrico Fermi, in the Manhattan District, and in the Atomic Energy Commission as Assistant Director of Reactor Development. Dr. Weil established within AEC, the Office for International Conference, which directed all preparations for United States technical participation in the Conference.

The United States Delegation to the Conference, plus the secretariat and staff, totaled 398 persons. The Official Representatives had eight Congressional Advisers, 192 technical and other advisers, and a secretariat and staff comprising 84 principals (including 9 of the advisers) and 118 others. The Congressional advisers, all members of the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy were: Senator Clinton P. Anderson, Chairman; Senator John O. Pastore, Senator Bourke B. Hickenlooper, Senator John W. Bricker, and Representative Carl T. Durham, Representative Chet Holifield, Representative W. Sterling Cole and Representative Carl Hinshaw.

Members of the United States Delegation named as Chairmen for the Conference Technical Sections were: Dr. J. C. Bugher, Dr. J. P. Howe, Dr. D. J. Hughes, Dr. W. F. Libby, Dr. Glenn Seaborg, Dr. F. H. Spedding, Dr. V. F. Weisskopf, and Dr. E. P. Wigner.

When the joint AEC-Department of State office was established on June 14, 1955, for actual conduct of the Conference, Dr. Weil headed the Office of Technical Programs and Exhibits, with Mr. T. O. Jones as Administrative Officer, Dr. Paul W. McDaniel as Technical Papers Officer, Dr. Alberto F. Thompson as Exhibits Of

Congressional advisers to the United States Delegation at the Conference. In the row behind the United Kingdom bench (Royaume Uni), they are, left to right, Senator Clinton P. Anderson, Chairman, Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy, Representative Carl T. Durham, Senator Bourke B. Hickenlooper, Representative W. Sterling Cole, Senator John W. Bricker, and Senator John O. Pastore.

ficer, and Dr. George G. Manov as Reactor Officer. Harry S. Traynor, AEC Assistant General Manager, became Executive Officer of the United States Conference Office with George M. Fennemore (State) as his deputy. The United States Delegation's Information office was under the direction of John P. McKnight (USIA), with Morse Salisbury (AEC), Joseph Hanson (USIA), and Richard Friedman (State) as deputies.

Other offices were: Liaison and Protocol, Dr. John A. Hall (AEC); Classification Office, Dr. Charles D. Luke (AEC) with Charles L. Marshall (AEC) as deputy; Administrative Office under Albert J. Ciaffone (State) with H. D. Anamosa (AEC) and G. R. Koontz (State) as deputies; and Special Services Office under the codirectorship of Daniel H. Clare, Jr. (State), and Bryan La Plante (AEC) with K. O. Lynch (State) and R. G. Cavanaugh (AEC) as deputies.

Before and during the Conference, a number of news releases was issued. News conferences were held by Dr. Rabi at New York and Paris in May and by Chairman Strauss and Dr. Weil in June and July at New York and Washington; and by Dr. Weil in August at Geneva before the Conference opened.

During the Conference, two press conferences were held by Chairman Strauss and Commissioner Libby. In the first, Chairman Strauss paid tribute to the Conference for "reopening lines of communication between men who have not been in communication for many years," and announced establishment by the Ford Motor Co. Fund of a $1 million fund to provide world-wide atoms-for-peace awards. In the second, Chairman Strauss discussed the prospects for thermonuclear power. He confirmed that the United States had a program in this field but counseled that "there has been nothing in the nature of breakthroughs that would warrant anyone assuming that this was anything except a very long range-and I would accent the word 'very'-prospect".

The United States took the occasion of the Conference to announce on August 8 its prices for lease of enriched uranium or sale of normal uranium and heavy water (see International Affairs).

One news release concerned the showing in Geneva of a motion picture on production of electricity by the Experimental Boiling Water Reactor, Borax II. The film, made especially for the Conference, pictured the town of Arco, Idaho-normally supplied with electricity by a conventional system-being lighted and powered experimentally for one hour with electricity from the reactor on July 17, 1955—the first American community to receive its entire supply of electricity from a nuclear reactor.

Early in the planning stages of United States participation in the Conference, AEC undertook to prepare an 8-volume set of selected reference material, a collection of technical unclassified and declassified information on various peaceful uses of atomic energy, together with a special introductory volume, which was printed in the four official languages of the Conference: English, French, Russian, and Spanish. An initial presentation of the introductory volume was made at a luncheon August 9 to the United Nations and Conference officers. The complete sets were made available to official representatives of all nations represented.

On the final day of the Conference, August 20, 1955, the United States presented to the United Nations a reference and depository library, part of the United States Technical Library Exhibit at the Conference, and similar to those that have been presented by the United States to other countries. On that day also, Chairman Strauss, acting on behalf of the United States, signed over to Paul Scherrer, Chairman, Swiss Commission for Nuclear Research, acting on behalf of the Swiss Government, the research reactor exhibited at Geneva which the Swiss had arranged to purchase.

Crowds waiting to enter U. S. Research Reactor Exhibit on grounds of Palais des Nations in Geneva. The reactor was located in the higher central portion of the temporary building which the United States erected to house the reactor. The front panel of the building displays the "Atoms-for-Peace" emblem.

Paramount among the activities of the Conference in influence on world advancement in technical atomic energy knowledge and therefore in realizing the objectives of the Conference-were the sessions, both plenary and technical, for the presentation of papers and discussion among the delegates. In the following paragraphs the United States participation in the sessions is noted in general terms.

The United States and all other nations presenting papers and engaging in the discussions both received and gave information. Evaluations of the Conference by United States technical men contain numerous references to new knowledge in nuclear theory and nuclear engineering which was derived from the contributions of other nations. One particularly useful aspect was the confirmation of considerable United States nuclear measurement data by independent research in other nations which was made public at the Conference. Important contributions of this country included new data in such