Statement by the President Announcing Determination Making Additional Uranium 235 Available for Peaceful Uses.
IN MY STATEMENT on February 22, 1956, announcing the designation of 40,000 kilograms of uranium 235 for research and development purposes and for fueling nuclear power reactors at home and abroad, I stated that the Atomic Energy Commission would recommend that more supplies be made available for sale or lease as necessary in the future for additional nuclear power projects.
At the recommendation of the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, in which the Secretaries of State and Defense concur, I have determined under Section 41b of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 that 59,800 kilograms of uranium 235, in addition to previous allocations, may be made available for peaceful uses at home and abroad under conditions prescribed by the United States Government.
The additional quantities of uranium 235 which will be made available for distribution over a period of years are:
(a) 30,000 kilograms in the United States, through lease for all licensed civilian purposes, principally for power reactors.
(b) 29,800 kilograms outside the United States, through sale or lease, to Governments of individual nations or to groups of nations with which the United States concludes Agreements for Cooperation.
Distribution of special nuclear material will be subject to prudent safeguards against diversion of the materials to non-peaceful purposes.
Added to the 40,000 kilograms of uranium 235 designated on February 22, 1956, and the 200 kilograms designated earlier, this designation brings to 100,000 kilograms the total amount of this material to be made available as required for peaceful purposes, divided equally between domestic and foreign uses.
At current prices, established by the Atomic Energy Commission last November, the value of 100,000 kilograms of uranium
235 to be sold or leased is about $1.7 billion.
I am gratified that the advance toward power and knowledge from the atom is proceeding at a pace which requires provision of additional supplies of the basic atomic fuel.
Further details concerning the new determinations of availability of uranium 235 are set forth in the attached statement by the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.
Note: The statement by Lewis L. Strauss, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, was printed in full in Appendix 13 to the 22d semiannual report of the Atomic Energy Commission, dated July 1957.
Among other things, the statement pointed out that "seven agreements for cooperation with friendly nations in various parts of the world providing for power reactors are now in effect, seven more are about to be concluded, and a number of others are under negotiation. Twenty-nine agreements for cooperation providing for research reactors are now in effect. Negotiations have been completed on eight additional research agreements and it is expected that they will become effective within the next year .... No agreements for cooperation under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 are made by the United States with the Soviet Union or its satellites."
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Statement by the President Announcing Determination Making Additional Uranium 235 Available for Peaceful Uses. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/233338