Evening star., 1947-04-13
he Acc Und dertukes
A FutefuI Enterprise

01Sl fAGI
Newly Confirmed Atomic Group
Has Great Powers for Task
By William II, Harrison.
With all It's members at last confirmed
in Office under the Craftsmanship OF
David E. Liiienthal, the United States
Atomic Energy Commission now Is free
to make full use OF its tremendous
powers to conduct the most revolutions
airy Federal enterprise in our history.
The character Of this agency is so extra
ordinary that time will be required for
the American people to grow used to 1t.
Undoubtedly, too. since 1t Is largely ex-
perimental and since it may one day
have to be fitted into system of inter-
national control. it will undergo more
than few changes in the years ahead.
As far as the immediate future is
concerned, however, the ACC Is geared
for history making action To begin
with, it has at its disposal all the vast
atomic facilities in which the Nation
invested $4,000. 900 900 during the war.
Organizationally. in keeping with the
unprecedented Congressional Act Great
ing it. its five members and general
manager have under them four divisions,
each with special director Research,
Production, Engineering and Military
Application. The commissions personnel
from clerks to nuclear physicists-will
continue to number in the tens of thou
sands, and its annual expenditures for
long time to come probably will re-
main in the neighborhood of a half bill
spent yearly on our entire Army estab-
lishment prior to 1889.
xx r
In harnessing the atom, the United
States thus has forced upon itself q
great new growth in Government. Be-
fore the war the Acc was thing
undreamed of by most Americans, but
now it is a giant and inescapable reality
with authority much more far-reaching
than any ever before delegated to .
Federal agency-a delegation made
imperative by the awesome good-and-
evil nature of nuclear fission. Yet this
power will be Offset in part by sound
and effective checks. Although the ACC
is all-civilian in its membership to
insure civilian control, 1t must advise
and consult with Military Liaison
Committee on everything involving
military applications. The committee
made up of representatives of the War
and Navy Departments-may appeal to
the heads of those departments when
ever it differs with the commission,
and the Secretary of War or Navy may
then appeal to the President, whose
settlement of the dispute will be final.
In addition, the AEC-which must re-
port twice yearly to Congress-wil be
obliged to operate with a General Ad-
visory Committee on scientific and
technical questionS-a nine-marl group
appointed by the President and meeting
at least four times a year. Finally
and this Is key safeguard against
possible abuses-a permanent joint
Senate-H House COMMITTEES will make con-
tinuing studies of the Aces activities
and other matters relating to domestic
atomic energy.
But even with checks like these the
Acc still will have-and necessarily
immense powers. In effect, 1t will func-
ton as an almost absolute government
monopoly. Although 1t must insure con-
tinued nuclear research and develop
ment by private and public institutions
and let free enterprise operate In the
field to the minor degree permitted by
security, no atomic project will be inde-
pendent of it. 1t will be the sole owner
Of all dangerous production facilities and
fashionable materials. Although 1t cannot
export them, 1t will have the authority
to buy or otherwise acquire such facili-
ties and materials abroad. 1t will be
able, on the basis of fair and reason
able compensation, to take possession
of any privately American land
containing uranium and thorium. BY
licensing, rigid regulations and similar
measures, it will exercise the tightest
kind of control, even as it seeks to pro-
mote the atoms beneflcent potentialities.
With the President deciding ON quantity
and distribution it will be the sole pro-
ducer of A-bombs and kindred weapons,
though the armed forces and others will
be permitted to carry on related re-
search. 1t will determine what informa-
ton must remain secret, and any one
found guilty of revealing that informa-
tion may face even the penalty OF
death. There can be no prosecution,
however, unless and until the Attorney
General has consulted with the Acc
a provision presumably based on the
possibility that jury trials might expose
the very data that must be kept In the
dark AS for its own legal accountability,
the President may exempt certain of this
commissions actions from applicable
laws whenever he deems it advisable
to do so for security reasons.
This partial list of the Aces rights
and powers is enough to emphasize the
agency's great and unique importance.
With atomic development still in its
infancy, Mr.. Lilienthal and his fellow
commissioners are armed with the kind
Of authority they heed to discharge their
grave responsibilities. AS the first adj
ministrators of this fateful civilian
project, they will be pioneering in .
field capable of revolutionizing the
Nation and the world. As long as the
peace is uncertain and international
control only dream. their main efforts
will be concentrated on military applica-
tions of the atom. They will be privy
to the most forbidding information.