Year
1969
Abstract
As special nuclear materials managers you are subject to rapid changes in the specialized world that constitutes your vocation. Also, some of the forces that act on the world at large are passed down to you and seem beyond your control. However, it is important for you to accept the fact that in your actions you have an influence on this external world. I hope today to discuss some of these factors and interactions. One could argue that the first manager of special nuclear materials was Glenn T. Seaborg, currently Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. As soon as he and his co-workers, McMillan, Kennedy, and Wall, produced in 1940 the first 1000th of a picogram of plutonium, he took action to put it to good use. He set out to prevent its loss, he measured its quantity, and, I presume, kept records about it, for eventually he published detailed articles recording its chemical and physical properties, And if you do not wish to accept the date of January 28, i940, the date of first publication about plutonium as the start of the profession of nuclear materials manager, I am sure that you will accept a date in the 1944-45 period, for at that time first gram and then kilogram quantities of enriched uranium and plutonium were produced in special facilities and transferred from one location to another. The material was measured and guarded. At that time even though it ivas spread in many locations, the material all belonged to the United States' government and was managed by one organization, the Manhattan Engineer District. The material was very expensive and weapons use was the only demon- strated application of these materials. Only a few people in the United States and fewer people elsewhere recognized even in the barest outlines the potential uses to which these materials could be put. Today special nuclear materials and their applications are relatively plentiful. For example, Douglas George stated in 1965 that the United States' inventory of special nuclear materials was valued at over twelve billion dollars. In the world, special nuclear materials are owned by many governments and private organizations and are managed for the account of governments by many more private groups. Most of the material is now owned and directly controlled by national govern- ments, with the preponderant materials quantities obviously being controlled by the United States and the U.S.S.R. The potential applications in both peaceful and warlike activities o L\" special nuclear materials are well-known by large numbers of people, and the explicit details of the necessary technology for either application are wide- spread.