ABSTRACT
In his Atoms for Peace speech, President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, "the United States pledges before you—and therefore before the world—its determination ... to devote its entire heart and mind to find the way by which the miraculous inventiveness of man shall not be dedicated to his death, but consecrated to his life." That ennobling statement inspired the plan subsequently formulated by the nuclear pioneers. Initial deployment of converter reactors, followed later by a transition to breeders, was to provide an essentially inexhaustible energy source. Reprocessing was to be the gateway to the breeder economy and a key element in closing the entire fuel cycle, together with waste stabilization and ultimate disposal away from the biosphere. This was the technical and logistical plan formulated by the pioneers. And the benefits of nuclear power would, under bilateral and international controls, be made available to other nations through exports and programs of nuclear cooperation.
