28 



opment of nuclear power would remain a policy issue separate 

 from that of general science policy. Indeed, nothing did more to 

 link science with national security in the American mind than the 

 development of the atomic bomb. The AEC was intended to manage 

 and regulate the development of nuclear energy in the United 

 States, paying close attention to questions of national defense and 

 national security, but putting it clearly under civilian control. 



The debate over the control and development of atomic energy 

 revolved around the issue of military versus civilian control. In ad- 

 dition, scientists like Niels Bohr, James Franck, and Leo Szilard 

 led an effort in the scientific community to establish international 

 control of atomic energy in order to avert an arms race. Several 

 Congressional hearings were held on the development of domestic 

 policy for atomic energy. 11 Important legislation that grappled 

 with the debate over military and civilian control was introduced 

 by Senator Edwin C. Johnson, Democrat of Colorado, and Repre- 

 sentative Andrew Jackson May, Democrat of Kentucky. May and 

 Johnson, who chaired the House and Senate military affairs com- 

 mittees respectively, proposed the creation of a board to oversee 

 the nation's postwar atomic energy program. Their bill gave the 

 military a central role in the future development of nuclear power. 



Upon learning of the May-Johnson bill, many of the scientists 

 who worked at the various laboratories associated with the Man- 

 hattan Project began to organize a protest. The Federation of 

 American Scientists was founded to lobby for civilian control of the 

 atomic energy program. Through public hearings, active lobbying, 

 and other public activities, this group of scientists argued vigorous- 

 ly and successfully for the defeat of the bill. Moreover, the "Atomic 

 Scientists' Movement," which developed soon after World War II, 

 worked diligently to educate the public also about the danger of 

 nuclear weapons and their proliferation. 1 2 



An alternative bill was presented by the chairman of the Senate 

 Special Committee on Atomic Energy, Senator J. Brian McMahon, 

 Democrat of Connecticut. The McMahon bill was similar to the 

 May-Johnson bill with respect to the form of regulation to be devel- 

 oped. It differed, however, in its deemphasis of the military role in 

 regulation and its promotion of civilian application of nuclear 

 power. McMahon's bill won out, and on 1 August 1946 the Atomic 

 Energy Act was signed into law by President Truman. 



Taking its lead from the OSRD, the AEC undertook much of its 

 research through contracts with universities, industry, and non- 

 profit organizations. In addition, it also created a system of nation- 

 al laboratories, many of them inherited from the Manhattan 

 Project. These laboratories — which were Government-owned and 

 contractor-operated — included Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Los 

 Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Law- 

 rence Radiation Laboratory, Ames Laboratory, Bettis Plant, and 



1 ' See, for example, U.S. Congress, Hearings before the Special Committee on Atomic Energy, 

 A Bill for the Development and Control of Atomic Energy (79th Congress, 2nd session. Washing- 

 ton: GPO, 1947). 



12 See Alice K. Smith, A Peril and a Hope: The Scientists' Movement in America, 1945-47 (Chi- 

 cago: University of Chicago Press, 1965); and Arthur Steiner, "Scientists, Statesmen, and Politi- 

 cians: The Compelling Influences on American Atomic Energy Policy, 1945-1946," Minerva, 12 

 (October 1974), 469-509. 



