ABSTRACT
The 22 January 1947 AWOAMPC meeting considered draft D-Notice No.10 (non-publication of movements of uranium and thorium), a ban not already covered by the Atomic Energy Act. The Services considered that knowledge of stocks available in Britain would enable a ‘foreign power’ to estimate the number of atomic weapons the UK would be able to produce and how long it would take. It was at that time impossible to differentiate between the development of atomic energy for commercial and for military purposes, and, the reasoning went, the foreign power might therefore assume the worst and be encouraged to build up its own supply of atomic weapons. Officials believed the American Press did not mention such movements.
