History of Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Detailed in New Collection bunkhistory org resources history-of-us-nuclear-nonproliferation-policy-1969-1977-detailed-in-new-declassifieddocuments-collection-national-security-archive Embedded video Watch Video At https youtu be oSrBP_4j0Sw 1 3 Introduction to the collection National Security Archive Intelligence Agency also declassified documents in response to Freedom of Information Act FOIA and Mandatory Declassification Review MDR requests FOIA and MDR requests to those agencies along with appeals are still pending and may result in releases that will be included in future DNSA sets Intelligence Agency also declassified documents in response to Freedom of Information Act FOIA and Mandatory Declassification Review MDR requests FOIA and MDR requests to those agencies along with appeals are still pending and may result in releases that will be included in future DNSA sets U S Nuclear Nonproliferation 2 Part II The Nixon-Ford Years 1969-1976 is complemented by thousands of records included in five previous DNSA collections on U S nuclear history and other sets covering a range of related topics such as Henry Kissinger’s telephone transcripts and records of his meetings with foreign leaders the U S intelligence community presidential decision directives on national security and much more all of which is available to DNSA subscribers THE DOCUMENTS Document 1 U S Embassy Israel Despatch 311 to State Department “Research and Training Program in Field of Atomic Energy ” 30 November 1960 with Memorandum of Conversation Attached Secret Nov 30 1960 Source National Archives Record Group 59 State Department records Central Files 1960-1963 884a 1901 11-3060 MDR release Henry J Gomberg a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Michigan provided information to the State Department and other agencies that helped them connect the dots about the purposes of Israel’s secret Dimona nuclear reactor 1  With the support of the International Cooperation Administration a forerunner of USAID he had been in Israel to 2 3 work at the Technion on a training program to familiarize students of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy Before Gomberg left Israel he briefed U S Ambassador Ogden Reid and Embassy staffers on his concerns about the Israeli atomic project He had developed suspicions when he discovered that the Israelis were working on projects that they would not discuss with him Gomberg learned that Israeli scientists were seeking to produce gram amounts of plutonium which was “significant” because “amounts of this size could conceivably find use in weapons ” Responding to a question from Reid Gomberg “thought it was conceivable that Israel could have weapon capability in this field in less than 10 years ” As it turned out seven years later the Israelis had a workable bomb Document 2 Atomic Energy Commission Secretariat AEC 610 184 “Letter to Chairman JCAE Joint Committee on Atomic Energy on UK Gas Centrifuge ” Letter Attached 14 August 1969 Secret Aug 14 1969 Source MDR Release by Department of Energy Since the early 1960s the U S government had closely monitored Western European efforts to develop gas centrifuge technology for producing highly enriched uranium as reactor fuel Because of the gas centrifuge’s relevance to weapons proliferation Washington had persuaded the Dutch West Germans and the British to apply secrecy controls to the technology to prevent its further dissemination By the close of the decade the three countries were working to combine their resources to use the gas centrifuge for producing enriched uranium on an industrial scale The U S government was moderately supportive of the tripartite project seeing it as compatible with the NPT and as a worthy example of West European cooperation although it would produce a new competitor in world enriched uranium markets One complication that the AEC shared with the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy was that the British plan to share their centrifuge model with the Dutch and the West Germans would involve the transfer of technology derived from secret U S “ restricted data ” Yet after meeting with the British 3 3