Abstract

No Atoms for Peace

Over a year ago the Manhattan District of the army announced that a large experimental atomic-power plant was in process of design at Oak Ridge and that actual construction would begin late in 1947 or early in 1948. The Oak Ridge project, while still in the design stage, was abandoned last summer by the United States Atomic Energy Commission. Simultaneously the commission cut back the entire program for atomic-power development. There are three reasons for this state of affairs. First, the Atomic Energy Commission, up to the present, has concentrated its efforts overwhelmingly on bomb manufacture and weapons development. Second, the organization inherited by the commission was badly disintegrated and had to be rebuilt practically from scratch. Finally, the Oak Ridge project was a failure. Its history illustrates what happens when the military gets hold of research.