REMARKS BY CONGRESSMAN CRAIG HOSMER BEFORE THE ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE INSTITUTE OF NUCLEAR MATERIALS MANAGEMENT, GATLINBURG, TENNESSEE MAY ZS, 1970 (8:00 P.M. RELEASE)

Let us briefly trace the course of our U.S. national approach to special nuclear materials accountability. In Manhattan District da^/s r.nd up to just sixteen years ago the materials were kept tightly in the possession of the Government. How much oralloy and how much plutonium are unaccounted for during this period is not for me to say. Actually, I don't know and I doubt if anyone else could come up with much more than an educated guess. But since the amount of these materials was relatively small during this period, I believe we can safely say that losses likewise were relatively small. This initial period ended in 1954 with the extensive revision of the Atomic Energy Act. For the first time special nuclear material was made available legally to private persons for peaceful purposes. The Commission established procedures and criteria for the issuance of licenses to receive, use and transfer SNM. It proceeded on the general assumption that the financial responsibility of licensees for loss and damage, together -with the severe criminal penalties written into the Act, would result in safeguards being initialed by licensees to protect their pocket- books which, in the process, also would serve adequately to protect the material.