Belief-based Energy Technology Development in the United States: ...

nuclear weapons. In addition to guarding the U.S. atomic monopoly, the AEC was also charged with the mission of building up an inventory of nuclear weapons.

Despite the U.S. government's effort in guarding the atomic secret, the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb in August 1949. In response to the Soviet atomic detonation, Truman publicly announced his decision to support the development of the hydrogen bomb in January 1950. The U.S. hydrogen bomb was detonated in November 1952, followed by the Soviet hydrogen bomb in less than a year. A nuclear arms race had started.

Throughout the years of the Truman Administration, the AEC devoted most of its resources to developing and producing nuclear weapons, as well as guarding the nuclear secrets. There was little effort placed on developing civilian nuclear power.

From an outsider's view, the Manhattan Project had both merits and faults. It brought revolutionary technologies with great promise, but also created the most terrible weapon in mankind's history and started a nuclear arms race that put the entire world in grave danger. It should be difficult to say whether the Manhattan Project was a policy failure or success. Americans, however, almost unilaterally see the Manhattan Project as one of the greatest achievements in the history of their country.

Fear and Hope

Pandora's box was a widely used metaphor for the discovery of nuclear energy. Pandora had a box, which she was not to open under any circumstance. Overcome by her curiosity, Pandora opened the box, and all evil contained escaped and spread over the earth. She hastened to close the lid, but the whole contents of the box had escaped, except for one thing. That last thing in the box was Hope.

The story of nuclear energy appears to match the metaphor of Pandora's box perfectly. The discovery of nuclear fission immediately brought about all kinds of evil and painful experiences, including the