Atomic Power Race

Report Outline
Disputed Rate of American Progress
Crash Public Program Vs. Partnership Plan
International Nuclear Power Developments
Incentives to Leadership in Atomic Power
Special Focus

Disputed Rate of American Progress

Cheap nuclear power is the goal of an international technological race of increasing scope and intensity. Major development programs are being pressed in the United States, Great Britain, and Soviet Russia. Other industrial nations, faced with growing energy needs, are exploring the possibilities of nuclear power. Spirited commercial competition for reactor and nuclear fuel markets is expected to grow as technical and cost problems are brought nearer to solution. Gains in international prestige and political influence are foreseen for the nation which emerges as the leader in practical application of atom-generated power for peaceful purposes.

These circumstances have prompted members of Congress and others to question the adequacy of present American policy on civilian applications of nuclear energy. Hearings now in progress before the Joint Atomic Energy Committee of the House and Senate point up the fact that, although American scientific and technological effort is being exerted on a wide front, actual construction of full-scale nuclear power plants is farther advanced in Great Britain than in the United States. Fear that the Soviet Union may be moving even more rapidly has led some persons to urge that the government take forceful measures to bring large-scale power reactors into operation at the earliest possible date.

Status of United States Atom Power Projects

Experimental work on power reactors for civilian and military uses has been under way in the United States since 1947, shortly after the Atomic Energy Commission was given responsibility for the country's atomic energy program. In 1951, an experimental breeder reactor at Arco, Idaho, produced useful electric power for the first time. In 1955, the United States Navy launched the first atom-powered submarine, the Nautilus, which has logged more than 60,000 miles without refueling.