Word: aec
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...balancing of military security against the release of scientific information. Even after the release of the Smyth report, a publicly available how-to-do-it manual on the breeding and use of atomic energy--originally authorized by the Army, military officials in the atomic weapons program wanted the AEC to classify almost all atomic information. They also wanted to weed out all scientists not meeting rigorous security standards. At the same time, some very able men were quitting their jobs under the AEC because they found existing security gags in compatible with their own conceptions of free scientific development...
...conflict broke last summer when Iowa's Senator Hickenlooper accused Lilienthal of "incredible mismanagement" in handling the security program More than two months of Congressional sifting cleared Lilienthal, but a powerful Military Committee still looks over the AEC's shoulder, working to keep declassification of information as limited as possible...
Another of Lilienthal's problems was deciding what portion of AEC's resources should go to non-military use. An original estimate of a six-to-eight year head start in atomic bomb production allowed the AEC to go ahead with power-plant and medical research projects; intelligence reports and scientific evidence filtering out of Russia last summer indicated that the estimate was wrong. President Truman's September announcement that Russia had produced an atomic explosion fathered continuing military demands that the AEC concentrate almost entirely on making bombs and improving them. Other questions which Lilienthal worked over while...
Just over a week ago, President Truman regretfully accepted Lilienthal's resignation. This loss leaves the AEC looking for a chairman to carry it through what will probably be a tremendous period of expansion. We are now committed to an atomic armament race until some sort of an international control is created. This means increased production and hopped-up bombs; rumors of a six-times-more-powerful-than-Nagasaki weapon have been indirectly confirmed by the forthcoming Eniwetok tests. Electric generators run by atomic piles are well off the drawing boards; so are propulsion units for ships and even aircraft...
When asked about atomic energy, Mr. Arbuthnot, Frank Sullivan's cliche expert, said "humanity is at the crossroads." The AEC's next chairman had better be prepared to direct a lot of traffic...