Nuclear power has been an absorbing subject for more than a generation. The peril created by weapons of mass destruction has riveted the attention of governments and peoples. The peaceful atom, too, has exercised an exceptional hold on the imagination. Neither of atomic energy's two sides has lacked for critical examination. They have received constant and sober scrutiny from political leaders, scholars, concerned citizens, and moral philosophers.

Familiarity has dispelled some of the mystery that surrounds nuclear power. We have come to understand much about the way it can and does affect our lives. In certain respects, we have accommodated ourselves to its presence. Yet it remains a source of recurrent anxiety. Few people feel fully confident that “the bomb” is under adequate restraint. Worries about the safety of electric generating plants are pervasive. Most recently, concern has been aroused by the troubling prospect of nuclear arms spreading around the world as a direct consequence of expanding civilian nuclear programs. The mounting proliferation danger has revived latent fears and focused them on the disquieting link between the military atom and the peaceful atom. The prospect of nuclear armed states appearing at all points of the compass has unsettled a good deal of conventional government thinking about national security and international stability.

As nuclear proliferation moved toward the top of problem lists in Washington in the mid-seventies, it became evident that the issue posed an exceptional challenge to the U.S. government.