385. Memorandum of Conference with the President1
OTHERS PRESENT
- Chairman McCone
- General Goodpaster
Mr. McCone said he wanted to report to the President on a few matters of recent interest in his field of responsibility. The Atoms for Peace meeting at Geneva had gone extremely well. Following this Mr. McCone had visited AEC installations within the United States. He then returned to Vienna for the IAEA discussions. These had gone well until the Soviet representative delivered a diatribe against the United States—apparently entirely for propaganda effect, and to obscure the generous support by the United States for this project, and the total lack of Soviet support. Mr. McCone said the IAEA had experienced growing pains in its first year. In his judgment it should now be drawn much closer to the United Nations. There had been an idea that it could keep free from political overtones by being more independent; this has not, however, proven true. Our representative, Mr. Cole, has had his problems and has been under fire by the Canadians, British and Indians, among others. Also the Deputy, Mr. McKinney, has probably not given as much help as was needed. He is now resigning. The President asked Mr. McCone to work out with State very quickly a successor for McKinney.
Mr. McCone said that the current test series in Nevada is going forward very successfully. He said that some of these tests are showing great potentialities in the field of nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes. The President asked whether the AEC is making preparations for the experimental explosion in the Athabasca oil sands, aimed at releasing the oil now locked in the sands. Mr. McCone said he is trying to see if it can be gotten ready this winter; probably the hole can be drilled this winter, with the explosion more likely in 1960. He stressed the tremendous importance of these oil sands in international affairs—the reserves are apparently equal [Facsimile Page 2] in magnitude to the total proven reserves in the Middle East. He said he was very anxious that the “plow-share” program go forward, and wants to be sure that the test suspension agreement does not prejudice it.
The President commented that if the heat of these tremendously big explosions could be captured, it was evident that it could bring the oil sands to a very high temperature. Mr. McCone also mentioned the [Typeset Page 1456] heat application to be developed by experiment in one of the Carlsbad salt domes. The President commented that we ought to be quite careful while negotiations are going on. We will reserve the right to conduct these tests. Once the techniques have been proved out he was confident the world would demand that they be utilized, so that civilization could obtain the benefits of this activity.
Mr. McCone said it is clear that we are overcommitted on the purchase of uranium during the period between now and 1962. He would propose to lengthen the term of the commitment, while holding its total unchanged, thus lopping off the “peak” now in prospect. The President commented that if these experiments turn out successfully, and large demands for peaceful uses arise, we could use a lot of uranium. He felt we should keep up long-range interest in providing this product. He would see no objection to going to 1970 in order to bring the procurement into a better schedule.
Mr. McCone concluded by saying that he is working with Mr. Quarles to reach agreement on the problem of long-range requirements for atomic weapons—out of which needs for plutonium and hence for added plutonium capacity can be determined. The President thought this was a good project and hoped that it would forestall a reoccurrence of this year’s situation when the individual Chiefs gave testimony at variance with the over-all Defense position.
Brigadier General, USA
- Source: IAEA problems, Plowshare, uranium requirements. Secret. 2 pp. Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, DDE Diaries.↩