Evening star., 1953-12-06
Industry, the Law and the Atom

In his appearance before the New York
meeting of the National Association of Manu-
facturers, Representative James E. Van Zandt,
a member of the Joint Senate House Atomic
Committee, has drawn an impressive picture of
how the future will see the United States har-
Messing nuclear energy on vast scale for indus
trial power and other peacetime purposes.
Assuming that the world succeeds in pre-
venting an annihilating war, this future will
almost certainly materialize in due course. and
to speed its coming, the next session of Congress-
as Mr.. Van Zandt has said, will very probably
amend the present law in order to permit and
encourage private companies to participate in
nuclear development to considerably greater
degree than is allowed now But there still will
remain, and for long time to come. numerous
difficulties and obstacles inhibiting free atomic
enterprise.
These difficulties and obstacles have been
outlined to the NAM by Eugene M Zuckert
member of the Atomic Energy Commission.
While agreeing with Mr.. Van Zandt's estimate
Of future probabilities, and while favoring the
idea of having industry participate in the pro-
gram on as large scale as possible, Mr.. Zuckert
has emphasized that in this field private enter
prise cannot be cut loose from Federal apron
strings because of "two hard facts: One-the
use of fashionable material must be controlled
role in national defense. Two-private man
agement simply cannot afford, at this stage
the millions of dollars required to fool around
with the atom" It can only make relatively
minor cooperating investments in such prof.
ects as the one being undertaken by the Acc
to build reactOr designed to produce at least
$4,000 kilowatts of electrical power
Accordingly, having in mind the legislative
and administrative problems involved, Mr..
Zuckert has summed up the situation as fol-.
lows: "The dual potentiality of fashionable mate
rial makes it impossible to employ a laisSez-
faire philosophy in the development of its civil
ian use. Conversely, this does not mean the
perpetuation of unlimited Government control
of the future of atomic energy" Hence, the
task confronting Congress, the Acc and indus
try is to figure out how to steer an effective
course between these two extremes. Mr.. Zuck-
ert, for his own part feels that the projected
amendments to the law should provide for a
period of interim" developments period in
which years of painStaking and expensive
explorations may be required before the atoms
peacetime potentialities can be properly ex-
plotted. Further, he believes that the amend
ments should establish special incentives to
promote industrial participation, that they
should give the Acc large measure of discre-
tion in cooperating with private enterprise,
and that they should be as flexible as the con-
stantly changing nuclear picture demands.
But even with the best kind of legislation,
as Mr.. Zuckert has Indicated Government
industry atomic partnership will have to deal
with many complexities involving security,
safety and pricing problems. For instance, the
more that free enterprise moves into the field,
the more it will be necessary to reveal classified
material to ever-increasing numbers of people.
Who is to check on the loyalty of these people?
The FBI, private management or the Acc?
Similarly, who is to maintain and enforce
health and safety regulations, and who is to be
liable in the event of conceivable reactor diSas-
ters? AS for profit incentives, precisely what
standards and rules should be followed to insure
fair shake for everybody involved?
These questions speak pretty much for
themselves in support of Mr.. zuckertS view that
any amendments to the law should be designed
for an interim" period subject to rapid changes
which no one can now foresee. The task is
difficult, but there is reason to hope that Con-
gress will be able to deal with it in a way that
will stimulate private industry to join in the
great atomic development that Mr.. Van zandt
has forecast