University of Virginia Library

Willrich Says Nuclear Materials
Unprotected Under Commission

By JEFF LANE

The U.S. Atomic Energy
Commission cannot guarantee
that civilian power plants
adequately protect nuclear
material from misuse,
University Law Prof. Mason
Willrich told a meeting of
nuclear energy organizations
Wednesday.

Speaking before a joint
meeting of the Atomic
Industrial Forum and the
American Nuclear Society, Mr.
Willrich said it is doubtful that
the Atomic Energy
Commission (AEC) could deal
immediately with a problem
involving misuse or theft of
nuclear material because it
does not have a "single focus
of responsibility for either
policy planning or control
activities aimed at preventing
nuclear diversion."

The two organizations,
meeting in Washington, are
dealing with the topic "World
Energy Problems–Nuclear
Solutions."

Mr. Willrich, director of the
Center for the Study of
Science, Technology and
Public Policy at the
University's Law School, is a
former member of the U.S.
delegation to the 18-Nation
Disarmament Committee in
Geneva.

Time For Action Short

In addition, he is the author
of several books concerning the
uses of nuclear energy.

Mr. Willrich said, "The
problem should not be
sensationalized, but the time
for action to develop an
effective national safeguards
system is short."

"As a first step," he
continued, "physical
protection measures should be
increased, especially in the
transportation of nuclear
material."

According to Mr. Willrich,
there are a whole range of
effective measures for the
protection of nuclear materials
that can be adopted which are
not presently applied to the
material.

Mr. Willrich said, "The U.S.
national safeguards system is
still primitive. Under existing
regulations, it is possible that a
large amount of nuclear
material may be stored in a
locked building that is checked
by an unarmed watchman only
once every four-hours."

No Regulations For Recovery

"There are no regulations
governing the recovery of
stolen nuclear material, yet
AEC security requirements
could be circumvented by
political terrorists or
psychotics seeking the ultimate
attention-getting device," he
said.

"More revealing and
discouraging," Mr. Willrich
stated, "is the fact that the
AEC's five-year budget
projection calls for no
significant increase in spending
for our national safeguard
activities from now through
1977, despite the fact that
material flows in nuclear
energy will double in less than
three years."

Design Not Difficult

Moreover, he stated, "Most
experts consider the design and
manufacture of a crude nuclear
explosive device without
previous access to classified
data to be no longer an
extremely difficult task
technically."

In other words, Mr. Willrich
continued, "More and more
people will have in their heads
the technical knowledge that
would, if they put their minds
to it, enable them to make
nuclear explosives."