In December 1953, President Eisenhower, in a memorable address to the General Assembly of the United Nations, proposed the establishment under the aegis of the United Nations of an International Atomic Energy Agency “to serve the peaceful pursuits of mankind.” This proposal captured the imagination of people everywhere, and negotiations soon began as to the purpose, structure, scope, and program of such an organization. In October 1956 an 81-nation United Nations conference unanimously adopted a statute for the agency, which came into existence a year later with headquarters in Vienna, Austria. By the end of 1962 the IAEA had 78 member countries. Its most important work has been assisting some of the less developed nations of the world to begin programs for peaceful use of atomic energy. [Illustration: _On December 8, 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed before the United Nations General Assembly that an International Atomic Energy Agency be established through which all nations could share knowledge and materials to develop the peaceful uses of atomic energy for the benefit of all mankind. Seated on the presidential platform are, left to right, Mr. Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary-General of the U. N., Madame Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit of India, President of the General Assembly, and Mr. Andrew Cordier, Executive Assistant to the Secretary-General._ Courtesy United Nations] [Illustration: _This 150,000-kilowatt, dual-cycle, boiling-water reactor, located 35 miles north of Naples, Italy, on the Garigliano River, was built by General Electric under the United States-Euratom Joint Program. It achieved criticality on June 5, 1963._] Even before the international agency became an accomplished fact, the United States sought on its own to implement the spirit of President Eisenhower’s proposal. It initiated in 1955 an Atoms-for-Peace Program under which the United States has made bilateral agreements with some 40 nations for the sharing of information on peaceful uses of atomic energy and under which the United States has helped other nations to acquire nuclear reactors and materials for peaceful use. Mention should also be made of the International Conferences on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy which the United Nations held in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1955, 1958, and 1964. The 1955 conference was particularly noteworthy in that it marked the first time that scientists had met on a worldwide basis to discuss atomic energy. At and following this meeting much information previously kept secret was made public. Suggested References Books _Atomic Energy_, Irene D. Jaworski and Alexander Joseph, Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., New York 10017, 1961, 218 pp., $4.95. _Atompower_, Joseph M. Dukert, Coward-McCann, Inc., New York 10016, 1962, 127 pp., $3.50.