147. Editorial Note
On May 23, 1975, at 11:03 a.m. President Gerald R. Ford participated in a television interview with European journalists in advance of Ford’s upcoming trip to Europe, which included visits to Belgium to attend a NATO summit meeting, Spain, Austria, Italy, and Vatican City. Reporter Robert MacNeil from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) conducted the interview in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House; Washington-based reporters Henry Brandon (London Sunday Times), Adalbert de Segonzac (France-Soir), Jan Reifenberg (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), and Marino de Medici (Il Tempo of Rome) also took part.
After a brief discussion of general issues related to Europe, de Medici noted that European nations looked to the United States for “leadership in the area of development of alternate sources of energy.” De Medici added that the Europeans were especially interested in enriched uranium and access to technology, asking Ford to comment on initiatives in these areas. Ford responded:
“It is very critical. I will be making a decision in the relatively near future as to how we can move affirmatively in this area to provide adequate sources of enriched uranium. We must do it. The basic problem is whether you do it through government on the one hand or private enterprise on the other. We will have a decision; we will get going because we cannot tolerate further delay.
“Mr. Brandon. Mr. President, there is a great concern in the world about the proliferation of nuclear matter, and the more nuclear power [Page 494] plants are going to be built, the more the United States is going to supply them, the more of that material will be available in the world.
“I was wondering whether—the question is the reprocessing of this material. I wonder whether it would be possible to find a multilateral way of trying to reprocess this material, because there is a question of prestige with so many governments involved.
“The President. We are concerned about the proliferation of nuclear capability. We are trying to upgrade the safeguards when powerplants are sold or made available. We think there has to be continuous consultation on how we can do it technically and how we can do it diplomatically.
“We are going to maximize our effort, because if the number of nations having nuclear armaments increases significantly, the risk to the world increases, it multiplies. So, this Administration will do anything technically, diplomatically, or otherwise to avert the danger that you are talking about.” (Public Papers: Ford, 1975, Book I, pp. 716–717)