XII. Some Issues Recapitulated 



How the discovery of nuclear fission came to influence American 

 diplomacy and foreign policy has been examined in this case study. 

 Clearly these interactions are of interest to students of the relations 

 among science, technology, and American diplomacy. But why should 

 the Congress and the public be interested in the past and future impli- 

 cations of nuclear energy for diplomacy in the face of all the other 

 matters clamoring for attention '. 



Two primary reasons support such interest. First, after several 

 false alarms in Europe — or perhaps they were preliminary warnings 

 unrecognized — it is now becoming evident that the nations of the 

 world are facing a growing gap between demand for and supply of 

 fuels for energy. The United States and other nations, including those 

 of the European Economic Community and the Soviet bloc, expect 

 that nuclear energy will supply a large part of the electricity reo x uired 

 in the future, perhaps as much as half by the 1900's. U.S. diplomacy 

 and foreign policy should prepare now to take this anticipated energy 

 gap into account, especially since this Nation is expected to import 

 greatly increasing amounts of oil and natural gas in the decades 

 ahead. Thus considerations of foreign policy may become an input 

 into formation of domestic policy to develop nuclear power further 

 as a means of reducing the U.S. need to import fuels, thereby easing 

 international tensions and competition for scarce resources. Second. 

 European experience with international safeguards with its feature 

 of international inspection could provide a working demonstration of 

 inspection for future arms control and disarmament. Realization of 

 this benefit alone would, for many observers, be well worth the U.S. 

 effort thus far devoted to fostering nuclear power in Europe. 



The United States, by deliberate foreign policy decisions, has chosen 

 to foster commercial nuclear power in Europe. While it is not clear 

 in the literature what quantitative effects U.S. policies and programs 

 have had, they did contribute to the creation of one global and two 

 regional international organizations for nuclear power, and to the 

 establishment of commercial nuclear industries in technological nations 

 of Europe, primarily France, Italy, and West Germany. Yet U.S. 

 support has not led to a unified European nuclear industry, which 

 is splintered among; competing national industries. So the grand hope 

 of the European Economic Community for a truly European nuclear 

 energy industry remains unrealized. This shortfall from the goals 

 of A Target for Euratom has benefited the U.S. nuclear industry, 

 which by itself is today appreciably larger and stronger than any 

 one of the European nuclear industries. 



Commercial nuclear power in Europe is beginning to lessen Euro- 

 pean dependence upon imported fuels. x\ssumin<r that European prog- 

 ress with the demonstration and deployment of the breeder reactor 

 will further reduce this dependence upon uncertain sources of fuels, 



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