1536 



Bole of Congress 



Presidents Truman and Eisenhower established a pattern of close 

 cooperation with the Congress in what was recognized as a matter of 

 highest concern to U.S. security and other national concerns. There 

 was active participation by the Congress in many of the developments 

 attending the sharing of nuclear energy information and materials: 

 numerous hearings were held, important legislation was passed, and 

 advice and consent was given to treaty provisions. 



To preserve nuclear secrecy as a national security measure, the 

 Congress in the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 terminated nuclear 

 collaboration with the wartime allies of the United States. As the Cold 

 War intensified, the act was amended in 1951 to authorize the Atomic 

 Energy Commission to enter into certain limited arrangements with 

 allies, as in NATO, to give them nuclear information. The amendment 

 was intended to strengthen militarj^ alliances, not to foster commercial 

 uses of nuclear energy. 



THE CONGRESS AND AGREEMENTS ON NONMILITARY USES 



The Joint Committee on Atomic Energy held extensive hearings in 

 May and June 1954 on revisions of the act proposed b}^ President 

 Eisenhower, calling for international cooperation in nonmilitary uses 

 of nuclear energy. The resulting changes in basic atomic energy legis- 

 lation greatly expanded U.S. encouragement of the commercial use 

 of nuclear energy abroad. As before, international nuclear cooperation 

 was to be effected through bilateral agreements with individual 

 nations or with regional defense organizations. Not required to take 

 the form of treaties, the agreements were to be negotiated by the AEC 

 subject to congressional veto. 



This legislative framework is the basis for U.S. cooperation with 

 other nations in commercial nuclear energy matters; it made possible 

 the IAEA, Euratom, the NEA, the network of bilateral and multi- 

 lateral agreements negotiated by the United States, and the Non- 

 proliferation Treaty. 



The Joint Committee on Atomic Energy and the Senate Committee 

 on Foreign Relations expressed a keen interest in the question of 

 safeguards when the proposal to establish the IAEA was undergoing 

 congressional examination in 1957. In favorably reporting the pro- 

 posed Euratom Cooperation Act, the joint committee expressed its 

 belief that a vigorous program of cooperation in nuclear power by the 

 United States with foreign nations was desirable. The committee was 

 more critical of the proposed bilateral agreement with Euratom and 

 insisted on changes, particularly in connection with the safeguarding 

 of nuclear materials furnished by the United States. 



Mainly through the joint committee. Members of the Congress 

 closely followed proposals to sell U.S. technology' for manufactur- 

 ing enriched uranium. On several occasions the joint committee 

 expressed concern over possible moves to provide this technology to 

 foreign countries not only from the "giveway" standpoint but also 

 from that of effects on national security and U.S. obligations under the 

 Xonproliferation Treaty. 



