89 



cussed a speech by Gromyko to a committee of the UNAEC in July 



1946: 



Mr. Gromyko said that the proposed inspection is not re- 

 concilable with the principle of sovereignty of states. "No in- 

 spection as such can guarantee peace and security." And. he 

 added, ''This idea of inspection is greatly exaggerated in im- 

 portance. Tt is a too superficial understanding of the problem 

 of control." The Soviet Delegate repeated that inspection has 

 assumed undue importance in the course of the discussions 

 and said that the only real underlying method of control is 

 "by the cooperation of the United Nations." 79 



The origin for this opposition appears to have been in the precepts 

 associated with the political principle of national sovereignty. One 

 U.S. response to this argument was made by Baruch in a speech be- 

 fore Freedom House in October 1946 : 



Every treaty involves some diminution of absolute national 

 sovereignty, but nations enter into such treaties of their own 

 free will and to their common advantage. Indeed, freedom to 

 enter into such voluntary international arrangements is in- 

 herent in the very concept of national sovereignty. 80 



Action by the UNAEC: The first report of the UNAEC declared in 

 its "Findings" that : 



Ownership by the international control agency of mines 

 and of ores still in the ground is not to be regarded as man- 

 datory. 81 



Broad terms of reference were applied to dangerous activities, a cate- 

 gory which seemed to include all aspects of the production of fission- 

 able materials: 



* * * Effective control of atomic energy depends upon 

 effective control of the production and use of uranium, 

 thorium, and their fissionable derivatives. Appropriate mech- 

 anisms of control to prevent their unauthorized diversion or 

 clandestine production and use and to reduce the dangers of 

 seizure — including one or more of the following types of safe- 

 guards: accounting, inspection, supervision, management, 

 and licensing — must be applied through the various stages of 

 the processes from the time the uranium and thorium ores are 

 severed from the ground to the time they become nuclear fuel 

 and are used. 82 



Looking back from the early 1970s, when most contemporary chal- 

 lenges to nuclear power focus on safety and environmental effects, it 

 is interesting to note that these matters received scant attention by the 

 United Nations in the 1940s. 



The second report of the UNAEC elaborated on the general concept 

 of ownership by the Agency and how it applied to source material and 

 the operation of dangerous facilities, and thereby addressed itself to 

 political problems inherent in such an arrangement. The report's dis- 



79 State Department, Groirth of a Policy, p. 83. 



80 Ibid., p. 91. He might, however, have added that the ripht of withdrawal is also in 

 herent in national sovereignty. 



81 United Nations Atomic ' Energy Commission, "First Report of the Atomic Energy 

 Commission to the Security Council, 31 December 1946," p. 16. 



8 - Ibid. 



