Tuesday January 2 1962 - D C Office I presided over Information Meeting 99 notes attached Commissioner Olson told us that he plans to resign as a Commissioner on March 18 the expiration of his term is June 30 in order to re-enter private practice This of course raises the problem of a replacement with the prospect that JCAE members members of the Executive branch and others will have candidates not necessarily good ones it will be best to have a good candidate ready to suggest probably a lawyer from industry or government Dr Gerald Johnson met with Lee Haworth andlmafollowing the Information Meeting He said that following discussions with Drs Libby and Dunham he wants to appoint a small ad hoc committee to study the long term effects of a nuclear attack in particular those of fission product isotopes like Sr-90 and Cs-l37 The studies would include total effects on the ecology as well as those directly affecting humans Paul Tompkins has been suggested as chairman with a Britisher named Scott Russell and possibly another member of the AEC Division of Biology Medicine as the other two members In this connection I also mentioned the plan to set up a permanent working group to evaluate the biological effects of nuclear attacks this was motivated in part by our need to obtain information for our annual Net Evaluation studies I mentioned to Johnson that Gilpatric had called me about the need to expedite the release of weapons information to West 1 2 62 2 Germany in connection with NATO and indicated that we were proceeding as fast as we could I said however that our determination of an answer was complicated by the question of security of information on the two stage devices and also by our questions as to the political desirability of placing such weapons in the hands of West Germany I received a letter from Harold Brown giving DOD views on types of weapons requirements for future years they want emphasis on new concepts At 2 30 p m I was interviewed by George Wilson of 0% gawk Aviation week for an article on nuclear testing that will appear in next week's issue He wanted to know why more information had not been released to the general public on the results of the Russian tests I said we had released as much as we were sure of and that as more certain information was developed it would probably be released He then asked a number of questions about the need for testing and I gave answers which he assured me were for background or off the record use I pointed out to him the especial importance of the question as to whether the Russians will test again with respect to the President's decision as to whether to resume atmospheric testing COpy attached I received a letter from Sir Roger Makins regarding agreements reached by our staffs for testing a U K device at NTS I sent a letter to Dean Rusk copy attached re the matter of the U K testing a device at NTS                     National Security Archive    Suite 701  Gelman Library  The George Washington University    2130 H Street  NW  Washington  D C  20037    Phone  202 994‐7000  Fax  202 994‐7005  nsarchiv@gwu edu