ESTABLISHMENT OF A MATERIALS VANAGEMEMT SYSTEM

It is a pleasure to again appear before this group to discuss the new effort on the management of nuclear materials within the AEC. In addressing this group last year, I provided some of the factors behind the decision to establish a new organizational component to manage nuclear material inventories. Nuclear materials, like funds, are economic resources and the reduction of AEC inventories can be easily translated into budgetary terms. Since our facilities to produce new quantities of material are limited and because the emphasis is to reduce inventories for budget savings, more attention is being given to the allocation of materials between competing program needs. Like any limited resource, decisions on the supply and choice of nuclear materials utilization should be based on the costs and benefits associated with the planned use of the resource. Management of nuclear materials in the AEC reflects this basic principle.