227 



$37 million for further development of technology for these demon- 

 stration plants; and it offered many indirect incentives to stimulate 

 initial commercial use of U.S. nuclear power technology in Europe. 



U.S. Interest in Euratom Demonstration of Nuclear Power 



Even as the international negotiations for creation of Euratom were 

 Hearing completion, AEC Chairman Strauss was asserting the tech- 

 nological feasibility of nuclear power. In 1957, five experimental 

 nuclear power plants at AEC laboratories successfully provided a 

 proof of principle for five different technological approaches. But the 

 demonstrations were too small to provide cost and operational data 

 which would enable the domestic electric companies to decide upon 

 their commercial use. The next step for the U.S. domestic nuclear 

 power program was to build larger, engineering prototypes that would 

 work as part of a commercial utility. 222 Such demonstration plants 

 were needed to provide reliable engineering, operational, and cost in- 

 formation for the designers and the customers of commercial nuclear 

 power. However, the U.S. demonstration power program was slow in 

 starting and some observers feared that the Nation's nuclear power 

 program would falter if engineering prototypes were not quickly built 

 and put into operation. At this juncture, U.S. collaboration with 

 Euratom offered a solution because economic conditions in Europe 

 were more favorable for practical demonstration of nuclear power 

 than were those in the United States. 



AEC Commissioner Vance promptly endorsed this objective. In 

 1958 he informed the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy that the 

 AEC's foreign objectives for nuclear power were twofold : 323 



To achieve competitive nuclear power in friendly foreign na- 

 tions during the next 5 years through a comprehensive program 

 of assistance clearly defined and vigorously pursued. 



To fortify the position of leadership of the United States in the 



eyes of the world in the peaceful applications of atomic energy, 



particularly with regard to power. 



Also in 1958, the AEC informed the Joint Committee of conditions 



that would have to be achieved in Europe to demonstrate nuclear 



power. These were : 224 



(1) That the economic feasibility of nuclear power be proven, 

 not by theory and calculation, not by extrapolation from pilot 

 plant operation, but by the full-scale operation of power produc- 

 ing units on a scale large enough to assure statistical reliability of 

 the data ; 



(2) That the utilities into whose grid the power from these 

 nuclear plants must flow become familiar with the technical and 

 management problems of operating nuclear stations and accept, 

 with confidence, nuclear powerplants ; 



(3) That European equipment manufacturers gain knowledge 

 and competence in the production of reactor components ; and 



222 By having the utilities build, own, and operate demonstration plants with the AEC 

 providing research and development, special service and materials, and training of per- 

 sonnel, the Commission hoped to avoid further entanglement in the public versus private 

 power controversy. Proposals that the Commission itself build and operate large nuclear 

 power plants did not gain acceptance. 



223 U.S. Congress, Joint Committee on Atomic Energv, Hearings, AEC Authorizing Legis- 

 lation, Fiscal Year 1959, 85th Cong., 2d Sess., 195R, p. 215. 



12i U.S. Congress, Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, Hearings, Proposed Euratom 

 Agreements, op. cit., p. 226. 



