|
On December 8, 1953, in his Atoms for Peace speech to the United Nations,
President Eisenhower proposed joint international cooperation to develop
peaceful applications of nuclear energy. He pledged the United States'
determination "to help solve the fearful atomic dilemma--to devote its entire
heart and mind to find the way by which the miraculous inventiveness of man
shall not be dedicated to his death, but consecrated to his life." He suggested
that all nuclear nations turn over weapons-grade uranium and other materials to
a proposed International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It could then share the
materials with other nations for use in agriculture, medicine, electrical
energy, and other peaceful uses. When the IAEA finally was formed in 1957, the
Atomic Energy Commission offered 5,000 kilograms of uranium to the IAEA.
Two months after his speech, President Eisenhower proposed an amendment to the
Atomic Energy Act to permit the international cooperation he spoke of and to
allow electric utilities to develop nuclear power plants.
|
 |
