United Nations Atomic Energy Commission

The United Nations Atomic Energy Commission (UNAEC) was founded on 24 January 1946 by the first resolution of the United Nations General Assembly "to deal with the problems raised by the discovery of atomic energy."UN document |docid=A-RES-1(I) |type=Resolution |body=General Assembly |session=1 |resolution_number=1 |accessdate=2008-05-03|date=24 January 1946|title=Establishment of a Commission to Deal with the Problems Raised by the Discovery of Atomic Energy]

On 14 December 1946 the General Assembly passed a follow-up resolution urging an expeditious completion of the report by the Commission as well as its consideration by the United Nations Security Council.UN document |docid=A-RES-41(I) |type=Resolution |body=General Assembly |session=1 |resolution_number=41 |accessdate=2008-08-24|date=14 December 1946|title=Principles governing the general regulation and reduction of Armaments] The Security Council received the report on 31 December 1946 and passed a resolution on 10 March 1947 "recognizing that any agreement expressed by the members of the Council to the separate portions of the report is preliminary" and requesting a second report to be made.UN document |docid=S-RES-20(1947) |type=Resolution |body=Security Council |year=1947 |resolution_number=20 |accessdate=2008-08-24|title=Atomic energy: international control|date=10 March 1947] On 4 November 1948 the General Assembly passed a resolution stating that it had examined the first, second and third reports of the Commission and expressed its deep concern at the impasse which as been reached, as shown in its third report.UN document |docid=A-RES-191(III) |type=Resolution |body=General Assembly |session=3 |resolution_number=191 |accessdate=2008-08-24|title=Reports of the Atomic Energy Commission|date=4 November 1948]

On 14 June 1946, the United States representative to the Commission, Bernard Baruch, presented the Baruch Plan wherein the United States (at the time the only state possessing atomic weapons) would destroy its atomic arsenal on condition that the U.N. imposed controls on atomic development that would not be subject to United Nations Security Council veto. These controls would allow only the peaceful use of atomic energy. The plan was passed by the Commission, but not agreed to by the Soviet Union who abstained on the proposal in the Security Council. Debate on the plan continued into 1948, but by early 1947 it was clear that agreement was unlikely. [McGeorge Bundy, "Danger and Survival: Choices About the Bomb in the First Fifty Years" (New York, Vintage Books, 1988), pp. 176-184.]

In 1949 the Commission decided to adjourn indefinitely.Fact|date=May 2008

References

External links

* [http://www.peoplesarchive.com/browse/movies/2221/ Hans Bethe talking about the formation of the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission] on Peoples Archive.
* [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/decade/decad240.htm "General Findings and Recommendations Approved by the Atomic Energy Commission and Incorporated in its First Report to the Security Council, December 31 1946"] — from The Avalon Project at Yale Law School
* [http://www.mbe.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/international_control.htm Negotiating International Control (December 1945-1946)] , The Manhattan Project Interactive History, U.S. Department of Energy

ee also

*Baruch Plan
*Acheson-Lilienthal Report,
*International Atomic Energy Agency
*Cold War