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Vol IIa Oppenheimer

This document contains classified testimony from Mervin J. Kelly given on April 13, 1954 to the United States Atomic Energy Commission. In the testimony, Kelly confirms writing a report from December 1950 titled "Military Objectives in the Use of Atomic Energy". Kelly acknowledges some excerpted paragraphs discussing fission and thermonuclear weapons but says he had little expertise or contribution on thermonuclear weapons at that time. Kelly says he would have relied on the judgments of physicists like Robert Bacher, Luis Alvarez, and J. Robert Oppenheimer regarding thermonuclear weapons in his report.

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36 views4 pages

Vol IIa Oppenheimer

This document contains classified testimony from Mervin J. Kelly given on April 13, 1954 to the United States Atomic Energy Commission. In the testimony, Kelly confirms writing a report from December 1950 titled "Military Objectives in the Use of Atomic Energy". Kelly acknowledges some excerpted paragraphs discussing fission and thermonuclear weapons but says he had little expertise or contribution on thermonuclear weapons at that time. Kelly says he would have relied on the judgments of physicists like Robert Bacher, Luis Alvarez, and J. Robert Oppenheimer regarding thermonuclear weapons in his report.

Uploaded by

peter stosch
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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I •.

UNITED STATES ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION

In the Matter Of:

CLASSIFIED TESTIMONY OF:

MERVIN J. KELLY

Place - Washington, D. C.
Date - April 13, 1954

Patea..:....!~~...!:.9....39..:J: .....:······

ALDERSON REPORTING COMPANY


0./ficial 7{eporters
306 Ninth S~t. N. W••
Telephonee: NAtional 1120-1121
Washinqton 4. D. C.

ASSOCIATES IN PRINCIPAL CITIES

.fJ.. . . A ..
0 J

Q Doc 4 .. ve before me a photostat from the

report of Dec be 29 , 1950.,

A I s y • t is undoubtedly the report.


I
Q Ent tle "Military Objectives in the Use of

Atomic Energy". s that your report?

A That is ri tht. I would expect that to be the title.

Q Submit d o the Atomic Energy Committee of the

Research and D v lo ~ nt Board of the Department of Defense.

A Yes.,

Q I w 11 r 11 the excerpt paragraphs I have here:

"1. V tory in a genera 1 war in the near future is

likely todepe · o r i a ing to bear in a 11 aspects of our

military oper · ions the maximum application of atomic weapons."

"3. The ost urgent requirements for research and

development 1 e n the field of fission weapons.''

"12. I ive stu~y of thermonuclear warheads

as has been esta .is , d that they are more uncertain and

much more dif icul of d velopment and if achievable, much

more costly in nuclear materials than were thought a year ago.

"13. Tl· d termination of the feasibility of


•
thermonuclear ve pons ~s an important but very definitely

long range und rt ~ing (more than five years)o"

This ha b en extracted for security reasonso

"14. Only a timely recognition of the long range


t
20

character of the monuclear program will tend-to make

available for th ic tudies of the fission weapon program

the resources o Los Alamos laboratoryo"

Docs fr sh your recollection as to your report?

A I ha u . that is there. Those statements

would have such 1 · mpinging on my memory that I sti 11

don't ret . ber sions about it. In the first place,

the whole bac~ f is, and my expertness and

contribution w things that I knew as the technical

leader of Sandi of that time, the thermonuclear had

not reached the discussion stage at all~ That is a

long report, an t must be a relatively small part. Any

statement about • t s of the thermonuclear I would have

had to rely on there that were in that. I haven't he

time and don't ~to get over bto things that don't

reach my cogniz 0 I knew the genera 1 situation and kn'

the discussions t dvisory committe~and so on, but I

had really not mind to the thermonuclear problemo It


did not reach s until quite a bit later.

Q Dr. · l , upon whom would you have had to rely

with respect to ;h rmonuc lear?

A The pe •ho would know, as nuclear physicists

that were there be Bacher, Alvarez, and Dr. Oppenheimera

I i;hink a 11 the t of us would -- prbbably Lauritsen to a

__.11 t:t le less ext -- but all the rest ·of us would ·have been
2

dependent up the judgments of ::. er ~

Alvarez, and e· I ~otld certainly have respe tOd in

that area. Jut o 't r member that part of the delibera~ion

at a 11. It ..r.;::, • -n y m4nd. If they were in the

committee, I d ' e her .. hem.

(' Did 0 . he · a nd Alvarez at that time?

A Yes, 11..

Q You
., dy , if I recall, that Dr.

Oppenheimer i t in this field.

A Th t

(Conclusion of i sec;ion of Kelly _testimony.)

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