Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1952-01-28
Our Atomic Expansion

Although the atomic expenditure of SIT
billion projected for fiscal 1858 is only little
bit higher than the sum being spent for the
same purpose in the current year, the present
session of Congress will be asked for legislation
to launch vast and portentouS expansion OF
the Nations nuclear energy program. The pros
pect constitutes grim commentary on the dam
gerous state of the world. At the same time,
however, in terms of both military security and
future peacetime progress, it is full of great
and revolutionary potentialities whose signif
canoe as deterrent to war and as conStruc-
tive force in the life of mankind can hardly be
exaggerated
Actually, starting with enlargementFof pro-
ductive capacity at the Hanford plutonium plant
and the Oak Ridge uranium plant, our nuclear-
energy project has been undergoing subStan-
tial growth ever since 1949, and it has been
particularly stepped up since the outbreak of
Red aggression in Korea-an event that accounts
for the huge new facilities being built at Aiken,
South Carolina, and Paducah Kentucky. The
whole program, from its relatively small wartime
beginning up to the present. has involved ma
tional investment in the neighborhood OF 81
billion which will rise to approximately 50 billion
by the end of fiscal 1858. And now, as the Presi-
dent has revealed in connection with his budget
message the Atomic Energy Commission, the
top Pentagon command and the Office Of Defense
Mobilization are drafting the final details OF
plan calling for much greater expansion.
Under the plan-which will be submitted in
the near future with the full backing of the
Senate-House Atomic Committee headed by
Senator McMahon-the President is to ask Con-
gress for legislation granting immediate author
ity to begin letting between S. billion and S.
billion of contracts" for additional facilities to
increase the output Of fashionable materials and
A-weapons of various kinds The intention is to
put many of these contracts into effect between
now and the end of the next fiscal year, but
since actual cash OUTLAWS on them viii not
amount to much until after June 80, 1858, the
figures involved do not appear in the budget
that has Just been presented. Nevertheless the
contracts-which will cover work to be spread
out over the next four or Ave yearS-Will set the
expansion into motion during the months d.
rectly ahead, and they will represent operations
and expenditures over and above the Aces Dig
current scale of operations and expenditures.
AL this is in line with the course advocated
by the Senate House Atomic Committee. Al
though it falls considerably short OF Chairman
McMahon's proposal last September to spend
Sc billion annually on A-weaponS 1t is long
step in that direction. In effect, 1t lends strong
confirmation to past indications that we have
been making great progress in the design ana
output of nuclear ornaments including progress
toward the super-deadly hydrogen bomb MIR.
Mcmahon, who is well informed on the subject,
has gone on record as declaring that "the sky
is the limit on the number and variety" OF such
ornaments that the United States can produce
If it wishes to produce them tfor example, "one
model that takes the place of thousand oa-
zookas another that makes unnecessary hun
dred depth charges, and yet another that would
substitute for INT stacked as high as Pixies
Peak").
In revealing the expansion plan, the Presi-
dent has been purpoSeiy vague and guarded In
his language, and he has expressed only the
hope that the stepped-up program will eventu-
ally save money by decreasing the need for con-
ventional ornaments. To that extent he has
debated some of Mr.. McMahons optimistic Sep
ten1ber estimates, but that does not mean that
important advances are not being made toward
the kind of military establishment that Me.
Mcmahon has enyisioned- Army with an
abundance Of atomic artillery shells, short
range atomic guided missiles Pathological arms
and light planes capable Of tactical atomic
forays; a Navy with nuclear-powered subma-
rines, khip-based atomic guns and atomif guided
missile atomic mines, target-seeking atomic
Nnrpedo& and nuclear-poWered carriers housing