Executive Order 9701—Providing for the Reservation of Rights to Fissionable Materials in Lands Owned By the United States

By virtue of the authority vested in me as the President of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows:

1. Public lands of the United States, including lands in Alaska, which contain or may contain substantial deposits of fissionable materials shall be subject to (a) disposal under all applicable public-land laws which authorize or permit a reservation to the United States of all minerals in the land, together with the right to enter upon the land and prospect for, mine, and remove such minerals: Provided, that the disposal is made subject to such reservation; and (b) lease, permit, or other authorization to use the land or its resources in accordance with applicable public-land laws: Provided, that every such lease, permit, or authorization which grants any right to remove minerals from such land, or which otherwise would preclude the United States from exercising its right to enter upon the land and prospect for, mine, and remove minerals, shall be made subject to a reservation to the United States of all fissionable materials in the land, together with the right to enter upon the land and prospect for, mine, and remove such materials.

2. So far as not in conflict with existing law, (a) all disposals of lands, other than public lands, heretofore or hereafter acquired by the United States or any instrumentality thereof, including lands in the territories and possessions of the United States, (b) all leases, permits, or other authorizations of whatever kind hereafter granted to remove minerals from such lands, and (c) all leases, permits or other authorizations which otherwise would preclude the United States from exercising its right to enter upon the lands and prospect for, mine, and remove minerals, shall reserve to the United States all fissionable materials in the lands, together with the right, at any and all times, to enter upon the lands and prospect for, mine, and remove such materials: Provided, that no reservation under this paragraph shall interfere with the primary use of the land established or indicated by any act of Congress; And provided further, that no reservation shall be required by this paragraph whenever the Secretary of the Interior shall determine that the land affected does not contain substantial deposits of fissionable materials, or that, in view of all the circumstances, there is no reasonable probability that such materials are present in quantities sufficient to justify their extraction.

3. The term "fissionable materials" as used in this order means (a) all deposits from which the substances known as thorium, uranium (including uranium enriched as to one of its isotopes), and elements higher than uranium in the periodic table, can be refined or produced, and (b) all deposits from which there can refined or produced other substances determined by the President by Executive order to be readily capable of or peculiarly related to transmutation of atomic species, the production of nuclear fission, or the release of atomic energy.

4. Executive Order No. 9613 of September 13, 1945, entitled "Withdrawing and Reserving for the Use of the United States Lands Containing Radio-active Mineral Substances" is hereby revoked: Provided, however, that all lands withdrawn or reserved by that order which contain or may contain substantial deposits of fissionable materials shall continue to remain withdrawn and reserved but shall be subject to the provisions of this order.

5. At 10:00 a.m. on the 28th day from the date on which this order is signed, the public lands released from withdrawal by the revocation of the said Executive Order No. 9613, shall, subject to valid existing rights, the provisions of existing withdrawals, and the prior provisions of this order, become subject to application, petition, location, and selection as follows:

(a) For a period of 90 days, commencing on the day and at the hour named above, the public lands affected by this order shall be subject to (1) application under the homestead or the desert land laws, or the small-tract act of June 1, 1938 (52 Stat. 609, 43 U.S.C. sec. 682a), by qualified veterans of World War II, for whose service recognition is granted by the act of September 27, 1944 (58 Stat. 747, 43 U.S.C. sec. 282), subject to the requirements of applicable law, and (2) application under any applicable public-land law, based on prior existing valid settlement rights and preference rights conferred by existing laws or equitable claims subject to allowance and confirmation. Applications by such veterans shall be subject to claims of the classes described in this subdivision (2).

(b) For a period of 20 days immediately prior to the beginning of such 90-day period, such veterans, and persons claiming preference rights superior to those of such veterans, may present their applications, and all such applications, together with those presented at 10:00 a.m. on the first day of the 90-day period, shall be treated as simultaneously filed.

(c) Commencing at 10:00 a.m. on the 91st day after the lands become subject to application, as hereinabove provided, any of the lands remaining unappropriated shall become subject to such application, petition, location, and selection by the public generally as may be authorized by the public-land laws.

(d) Application by the general public may be presented during the 20-day period immediately preceding such 91st day, and all such applications, together with those presented at 10:00 a.m. on that day, shall be treated as simultaneously filed.

6. Veterans shall accompany their applications with certified copies of their certificates of discharge, or other satisfactory evidence of their military or naval service. Persons asserting preference rights, through settlement or otherwise, and those having equitable claims shall accompany their applications by duly corroborated affidavits in support thereof, setting forth in detail all facts relevant to their claims.

7. Applications for these lands, which shall be filed in the appropriate District Land Office or, if there is no district land office in the State in which the land is situated, in the General Land Office, Washington, D.C., shall be acted upon in accordance with the regulations contained in § 295.8 of Title 43 of the Code of Federal Regulations (Circular 324, May 22, 1914, 43 L. D. 254), and part 296 of that title, to the extent that such regulations are applicable. Applications under the homestead laws shall be governed by the regulations contained in Subchapter I of Title 43 of the Code of Federal Regulations, and applications under the desert-land laws and the small-tract act of June 1, 1938, shall be governed by the regulations contained in Parts 232 and 257, respectively, of that title.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

THE WHITE HOUSE

March 4, 1946