ABSTRACT
Congress would have to overcome far more than entrenched interests that had circumscribed the powers of congressional oversight and enhanced executive flexibility. In tandem with US congressional activity already under way, the shocks contributed to the fundamental rethinking about fissionable material that many had been urging from the beginning. Though a consensus existed about a need for reorganizing the energy field in general and nuclear power particularly, blood would have to be shed within Congress and between Congress and the executive branch over the depository for ultimate power to control nuclear exports. Early attitudes were that Atoms for Peace and Agreements for Cooperation, coupled with bilateral and International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards along with an increased number of adherents to the Nonproliferation Treaty, would arrest proliferation and make manageable any attendant risks in the nuclear fuel cycle. A new appreciation of the ramifications of nuclear commerce gave new meaning to nonproliferation.
