![]() The thermonuclear weapon-nonexistent eight years ago-today dwarfs in destructive power all atomic weapons. But to counterbalance that debit on the atomic ledger there have been mighty increases in our assets.Ī wide variety of atomic weapons-considered in 1946 to be mere possibilities of a distant future-have today achieved conventional status in the arsenals of our armed forces. That monopoly disappeared in 1949, only three years after the Atomic Energy Act was enacted. One popular assumption of 1946-that the United States could maintain its monopoly in atomic weapons for an appreciable time-was quickly proved invalid. The anticipations of 1946, when government policy was established and the Atomic Energy Act was written, have been far outdistanced. Each successive year has seen technological advances in atomic energy exceeding even progressive estimates. Generations of normal scientific development have been compressed into less than a decade. Since 1946, however, there has been great progress in nuclear science and technology. Well suited to conditions then existing, the Act in the main is still adequate to the Nation's needs. In this atmosphere, the Atomic Energy Act was written. The common defense and world peace required that this monopoly be protected and prolonged by the most stringent security safeguards. Moreover, this Nation's monopoly of atomic weapons was of crucial importance in international relations. In the minds of most people this new energy was equated with the atomic bomb, and the bomb spelled the erasure of cities and the mass death of men, women, and children. To harness its power in peaceful and productive service was even then our hope and our goal, but its awesome destructiveness overshadowed its potential for good. ![]() A new and elemental source of tremendous energy had been unlocked by the United States the year before. In 1946, when the Atomic Energy Act was written, the world was on the threshold of the atomic era. Third, encouragement of broadened participation in the development of peacetime uses of atomic energy in the United States. Second, improved procedures for the control and dissemination of atomic energy information and, These amendments would accomplish this purpose, with proper security safeguards, through the following means:įirst, widened cooperation with our allies in certain atomic energy matters ![]() For the purpose of strengthening the defense and economy of the United States and of the free world, I recommend that the Congress approve a number of amendments to the Atomic Energy Act of 1946.
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