Ex-AEC Research Head Wants Conant Removed

A former director of research for the Atomic Energy Commission recommended that President Conant and other members of the advisory staff of the A.E.C. be replaced for causing over a year's delay in atomic research developments. Conant could not be reached for comment last night.

Dr. Kenneth S. Pitzer, Dean of the College of Chemistry at the University of California, in a telephone interview with the CRIMSON last night, stated that "the interests of the nation would be better served if the advisory board could be made up of men who had more faith in the future of their work." He declined to give the names of any other members but Conant.

Pitzer, commenting on a speech which he gave before the American Chemical Society's Southern California branch this weekend, lashed out at the top advisors whose "skepticism" and "over caution" have slowed research towards useful atomic energy. He based his charges on an article by Conant which stated that research towards atomic energy for non-military purposes would be abandoned by the United States in the 1960's.

In the past he has known Conant "only casually," he said, "and at times he has asked me to serve on a committee with him."

Citing the example of atomic reactors (furnaces), Pitzer pointed out that the first ones were built in wartime within three years. However, the job of building a reactor to produce electric power by atomic energy was delayed over a year while an "exhaustive series of preliminary studies" were conducted. He claimed that the technical ability to build the furnace was available right after the war, but top level advisors stopped it.

While recommending personnel replacements for Conant and the other advisers, Pitzer stated that the A.E.C. would be better off if it put more authority in the hands of the laboratory directors and project engineers who want to see speed, and aren't concerned with questions of skepticism.