Evening star., 1954-08-08
M. Strauss on NucIeof Power

Mr.. Strauss on NucIeof Power
Chairman Lewis L. Strauss Of the
Atomic Energy Commission, in his Phila-
delphia speech to the Veterans Of Foreign
Wars, has said number Of sensible and
reassuring things about the roles to be
played by the Government and private en-
terprise in the development Of nuclear
power for industrial and other non-military
purposes.
Such development Is already rather
well advanced. and 1t Is moving steadily
forward toward the point where our coun-
try will be able to harness the atom to pro-
duce electricity on a basis economically
competitive with the conventional sources
of energy. In fact, as Mr.. Strauss has de-
clared, Some engineer foresee
that, by 1960-only six years from now
perhaps 10 per cent of the netD power plants
on the drawing boards will have specifca-
tionS for nuclear reactorS, instead OF coal,
oil or gas-fired boilers. These same experts
say that by 1880 perhaps halt Of the new
plants will use fashionable materials as fuel"
These forecasts which Mr.. Strauss
himself regards as too conservative-ac-
centuate the importance Of what Congress
has done in retaining and accomplishing
in the revised Atomic Energy Act Of '1946
the declaration that one Of the major OBJ
jectives Of our national policy Is to develop,
use and control the atoms force in way
that will strengthen free competition in
private enterprise" And 1t is within the
framework Of that basic policy, as the Acc
chairman has said, that sound answers
must be sought to the question which has
already arisen "aS to who should own and
who should operate the nuclear power
plants that may be built In increasing
numbers in the next two or three decades"
At present, of course, the Nations work
with the atom still constitutes a Federal
monopoly striking departure from our
normal American pattern Of free enterprise.
But this monopoly, which could profoundly
alter our institutions If 1t were made per-
manent, Is not meant, and has never been
meant, to exist In perpetuity Congress has
made that much abundantly clear in the
law. And it has done so, in Mr.. Strauss
words, largely because continuance of COM
plete Government ownership and control
into the period Of major peacetime applica-
tions of atomic energy "could produce a
change In our society more radical than
any that might result from the technical
novelty of nuclear power"
That is why the Acc is unanimously
agreed on the principle that nuclear power
as it becomes economically attractive
should be produced and distributed not by
the commission, but by the private and
existing public power systems. True enough,
there will always have to be large
scale Federal participation and regulation
in this undertaking. But even so, as Mr..
Strauss has asserted, there is good reason to
believe that the inescapable restrictions
can be reconciled with free enterprise and
that numerous other problems involved
"can be solved without risk to security or
safety, without unfair advantage to any
group, and in harmony with the proper re-
lationships between our Government and It's
citizens"
In effect, in saying all this, Mr.. Strauss
has afdrmed that the atoms non-military
potentials are neither so strange nor so
other-worldly that they cannot be devel-
oped within our traditional system of indi-
vidual initiative and private industry. Con-
gress, rejecting the sentiment Of the
majority of the American people, shares
the same common sense view, and the law
has been revised accordingly-a fact that
can do much to hasten the advent Of eco
nomically feasible nuclear power.