Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency

The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:30 a. m., in room P-63, the Capitol, Senator Theodore Francis Green (chairman) presiding. Present: From the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: Senators Green (chairman), Sparkman, Mansfield, Long, Smith (New Jersey), Hickenlooper, Knowland, and Aiken. From the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy: Senators Pastore, Hickenlooper, Knowland, Bricker, and Dworshak. (Senators Hickenlooper and Knowland are on both committees.)

Also present: James J. Wadsworth, deputy United States representative to the United Nations; Lewis L. Strauss, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Secretary and members of the Joint Committee, we are meeting here today to consider the statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which was signed at New York City by the United States and 79 other nations between October 26, 1956, and January 24, 1957.

The Senate members of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy have been invited to sit with the Committee on Foreign Relations during these hearings because of the close relationship between the treaty before us and the work of the Joint Committee.

At this point, I am inserting in the record a copy of the letter which I wrote to Senator Clinton Anderson, vice chairman of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, together with his reply, concerning the invitation extended by the Committee on Foreign Relations to participate in these proceedings:

(The documents referred to are as follows:)

Hon. CLINTON P. ANDERSON,

Vice Chairman, Joint Committee on Atomic Energy,

Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C.

APRIL 8, 1957.

DEAR SENATOR ANDERSON: I refer to your letter dated March 22, 1957, suggesting that the statute establishing an International Atomic Energy Agency (Ex. I, 85th Cong., 1st sess.) be referred to the Senate members of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy after the Committee on Foreign Relations has completed action on the treaty, or earlier.

This matter was carefully explored by the Committee on Foreign Relations during a meeting on Wednesday, April 3, 1957. At that meeting, committee members felt that in view of the delicate and complex issues related to the peaceful uses of atomic energy which the treaty presents, it was important to obtain the collaboration of those Members of the Senate who have been most closely concerned with atomic-energy problems.

The committee therefore authorized me to invite the Senate members of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy to sit with the Committee on Foreign Relations during its hearings on the treaty, to participate in all discussions, and to examine witnesses. It would not be possible, however, for Senators from the Joint Committee to vote on the treaty itself or any amendments thereto which might be proposed. The Committee on Foreign Relations would also be glad to receive testimony from House members of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy should they wish to testify.

I believe that this procedure will be the most effective and expeditious means of dealing with the treaty, and that it will insure an adequate examination and analysis of its essential aspects.

I do not anticipate that it will be possible to hold hearings until after the Easter recess.

Sincerely yours,

THEODORE FRANCIS GREEN, Chairman.

ALBUQUERQUE, N. Mex., April 19, 1957.

Hon. THEODORE FRANCIS GREEN,

Chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations,

United States Senate, Washington, D. C.

DEAR SENATOR GREEN: Thank you very much for your letter of April 8. I am sure the Senate members of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy will be very pleased to sit with the Committee on Foreign Relations during its discussions of the statute establishing an International Atomic Energy Agency.

We will be looking for information as to the meeting dates sometime after the Easter recess.

Sincerely yours,

CLINTON P. ANDERSON.

OBJECTIVES AND IMPORTANCE OF THE STATUTE

The CHAIRMAN. The statute now before us in the form of a treaty would establish an international agency through which the nations of the world, in a cooperative effort, could advance and develop the peaceful uses of atomic energy, thus hastening the day when its benefits will be enjoyed by all people.

In my opinion, the statute is one of the most significant instruments which the Senate has been called upon to approve in recent years. It might have the most far-reaching consequences, not only for our Nation, but for humanity in general.

In a great many respects it is unfortunate that the first effective use of the power in the atom should have been for military purposes. For by this time it should be clear to most of us that the great potential of the atom lies in its peacetime value for industry, for agriculture, for medicine, and for everyday living.

Yet we have allowed our thinking to be conditioned too deeply by the military aspects of this awesome force, a force which can bring untold blessings to mankind.

One of the objectives of this statute is to divert a portion of the energies of the world to the development of peaceful uses of atomic power, and at the same time to take that first elusive step toward cooperative control over the use of nuclear materials which is so important for man's future.

It is for us to determine whether the United States can safely join with other nations in an effort to realize this objective; and whether we can adhere to the statute without incurring risks and hazards which we should avoid in the national interest.

On the other hand, it is equally important to know what some of the consequences might be of our failure to ratify; in other words, whether with due recognition of the risks involved, the national interest would be served more by participation than by abstention.

These are some of the questions to which I am sure Secretary Dulles and the other administration witnesses who appear here may wish to address themselves.

Members of this committee will doubtless have many other questions they wish to raise with you, Mr. Secretary, after you have completed your formal statement.

We will now hear from Secretary of State Dulles.

STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN FOSTER DULLES, SECRETARY OF

STATE

THE PRESIDENT'S "ATOMS FOR PEACE" PROPOSAL

Secretary DULLES. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, 312 years ago, on December 8, 1953, President Eisenhower made his plea for "Atoms for Peace.'

Addressing the General Assembly of the United Nations the President proposed a "way by which the miraculous inventiveness of man shall not be dedicated to his death, but consecrated to his life." To this end, he proposed the creation of an international agency for pooling nuclear material and technology to advance the peaceful uses of atomic energy.

His proposal was a new attack on the problem of the atom. In 1946, when the United States had atomic monopoly, we made the first effort to bring the atom under control. The Baruch plan would have stopped the output of nuclear weapons by putting all nuclear energy under international control. It was designed to safeguard the peoples of the world against the holocaust of atomic war.

For 7 years the Soviet Union had blocked any progress along this line by its refusal to accept atomic inspection and control. No way had been found to break the impasse. In this depressed climate the President's proposal for an atomic agency for peaceful purposes came as an inspiring concept. It was acclaimed throughout the world.

In the period since the proposal was made, the need for such an agency has become even more manifest. Great progress has been made in using atomic energy for generating electric power. No longer is this an experiment. Atomic powerplants are a future certainty. Some are already being built. The demand for energy is growing by leaps and bounds. More and more, men's minds are turning to the use of the atom as a source of energy.

At the same time, people are becoming more aware of some of the dangers inherent in this progress. When power is produced by nuclear energy, I understand that the process in current practice produces weapons quality material which could find its way into war arsenals in the absence of atomic controls and inspection. And such production also creates waste products which could imperil health and safety. Today the need is even more imperative for protection against the inevitable byproducts of the atomic age.

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