298. Letter From the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (Foster) to the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (Seaborg)1
Dear Glenn:
Thank you for your views regarding the cutoff of production of fissionable materials for use in weapons.2 We will be most interested in seeing the terms of reference and the results of the study which the AEC is undertaking of the ability of the U.S. to meet foreseeable requirements for fissionable material and tritium under conditions of a cutoff.
The DOD is looking at this problem and has also requested that a review of the present U.S. position on cutoff and transfer proposals be made by the Committee of Principals. To this end, I have requested my staff to prepare an updated paper that sets forth the present U.S. position and our proposed modification of the verification aspects. In this connection, the intelligence community is preparing an evaluation of our ability to detect, by unilateral means, clandestine plants in the USSR which could produce significant additions to the existing Soviet stockpiles of fissionable material. I have delayed answering your letter of October 9, 1968, because I had hoped to have data from this evaluation which I could send on for your use. I will forward it to you, along with other material which we are assembling, at a later date.
We will consider the range of alternative actions which you outlined in the last paragraph of your letter in reformulating our alternative proposal of a plant-by-plant “shutdown.” Our draft will emphasize the efforts already taken by the AEC in cutting back on production. My staff representatives will coordinate with yours on this subject.
Sincerely
- Source: Washington National Records Center, RG 383, Central Policy File: FRC 85 A 83, Master Book, No. 2 of 3, July-September 1968. Secret.↩
- Document 290.↩