Discussion of cooperation agreement between the USA and EURATOM in the U.S. Congress (July-August 1958)

In the second half of the 1950s the growing demand for energyin Western Europe opened the way for creation of EURATOM. At the same time the countries of EURATOM had no sufficientmaterial and technical opportunities for successful development of atomic industry. For that reason the close cooperation of the newlyestablished community with the United States was indispensable. In October 1956 the future EURATOM members authorized the threeWise Men to provide a report on the economic significance of atomic energy and necessary means for its development. Presented in thebeginning of 1957, the report A Target for EURATOM proposed to have 15 million kilowatt of electricity produced in EURATOM by1967. It also recommended the establishment of close cooperation with the main nuclear powers shortly after the signing of theEURATOM Treaty. The USAs interest towards EURATOM was motivated by the American support of the European integration, thetask of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and competition with the other nuclear powers for market of nuclear materials and reactorsin Western Europe. In 1958 the European and American experts developed the draft of future U.S.-EURATOM cooperation agreement.According to the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 the U.S. President approves all international cooperation agreements in the sphere ofpeaceful use of atomic energy and gives written conclusions that the given agreements do not represent risk for defence and security ofthe country. Then he passes the agreements to the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, which should consider them within 30 days fromthe moment of representation. The Hearings before the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy on the proposed U.S.-EURATOM agreementopened on July 22, 1958. Senator Anderson was the main critic of the proposed agreement. He criticized the U.S. administrationfor inattention to the domestic nuclear program and asked how the USA could trust EURATOM just after its creation. Despite SenatorAndersons criticism, most of the other members of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy were generally favourable to the joint program,especially since American industry favoured the agreement as a way of gaining export markets in Europe and of experimentingwith American reactors on a large scale. By the end of August the U.S. Congress approved the cooperation agreement between the USAand EURATOM, which would provide substantial profit from selling American nuclear reactors to the members of EURATOM andconfirm American leadership in the peaceful use of nuclear energy. However, the results of the joint U.S.-EURATOM agreement weredisappointing. Only three light water reactors were built under the program. Their total capacity did not exceed 750 megawatt, whichlooked insignificant when compared with the 1500 megawatt the three Wise Men had predicted in their report.

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