164 



Providing Working Experience with Nuclear Energy 



For the United States to share the benefits of nuclear energy with 

 other countries, particularly those of Europe, required a growing cadre 

 of trained scientists and engineers in those countries. One way to ex- 

 pose these technologists to U.S. nuclear technology was for them to be 

 trained at and work in the laboratories of the AEC. Arrangements 

 to this end were included in the bilateral agreements for cooperation. 

 Another way was to encourage the installation and use of nuclear re- 

 actors abroad which would provide still more experience for local 

 scientists and engineers. Arrangements to this end were negotiated 

 by the AEC and the Department of State with many countries. Some 

 agreements provided for help in obtaining research reactors, others 

 extended to demonstration nuclear power plants. The latter were to be 

 of particular importance for fostering commercial nuclear energy in 

 Europe. 



THE RESEARCH REACTOR PROGRAM 



U.S. efforts to get research reactors into the hands of scientists and 

 engineers abroad began November 5, 1054. At that time Ambassador 

 Henry Cabot Lodge announced to the U.N. General Assembly that the 

 United States was prepared to negotiate bilateral agreements with 

 other nations. These agreements would commit the United States to 

 supply technical assistance and nuclear fuel materials for the construc- 

 tion and operation of research reactors. By the end of 1955, the AEC 

 reported that agreements for the exchange of information on design, 

 const ruction, and operation of research reactor- included the couut ries 

 Japan, Lebanon, Netherlands, Pakistan, the Philippines, Portugal, 

 the Republic of China, Spain. Switzerland. Turkey, and Venezuela/ 



On June 11. 1955, President Eisenhower at Pennsylvania State Uni- 

 versity outlined new programs to enlarge the scope of U.S. assistance 

 to other nations in development of research and power reactor projects 

 under agreements with other nations or through the International 

 Atomic Energy Agency. For research reactors the President proposed 

 that the United States* would contribute half the cost and furnish the 

 nuclear fuel needed. lie said : 71 



We propose to offer research reactors to the people of free nations who can 

 use them effectively for die acquisition of the skills and understanding essential 

 to peaceful atomic progress. The United states, in the spirit of partnership that 

 moves as. will contrihute half the cost. We will also furnish the acquiring na- 

 tion the unclear material needed to fuel the reactor. 



To keep the commitment within bounds, the arrangements for fi- 

 nancing set a limit of $350,000 upon the U.S. contribution, which was 

 to he paid in dollars to the cooperating nation after it had completed 

 the project and certified the completion. By the end of 1!K>7. six re- 

 search reactors of US. manufacture were in operation abroad and 10 

 others were under construction or on order. The total US. commitment 

 at thai time was $2.4 million for the research reactor projects. 



Some doubts and insights: Several years later, in 1964, the Joint 

 ( Jommittee \ oiced some reserval ions as to the accomplishments of the 



7 " r s. Atomic Energv Commission, Major ictirities in the Itomic Energy Programs, 

 .lulu December 1955 (Washington, D.C. : U.'S. Government Printing Office, 1956), p. 85. 



71 r.S atomic Energy Commission, Eighteenth Semiannual Report of the Atomic Energy 

 Commission (Washington, D.C. : r.s. Government Printing Office, 1055), p. 13. 



