TWELVE POINTS

From the mass of fact and solid inference about atomic fission, TIME has abstracted twelve key points:

1. Atomic weapons will overshadow peacetime uses of atomic energy, at least until the world is confident that it has atomic weapons under control. Materials used in atomic-energy plants could easily be converted into bombs.

2. No military or scientific defense can be expected.

3 Breaking up cities is the only practical defense idea so far advanced; one plan for redistributing U.S. population and key industries would cost $250 billion.

4. Much larger atomic charges are in prospect. Present discussion assumes that atomic bombs will be dropped from planes; actually, atomic charges can be adapted for delivery to a target as rockets, as robombs, or shipped in wardrobe trunks.

5. Atomic weapons might kill 20% of a nation's people in an hour. No nation lost 10% of its people by military action in all the years of World War II.

6. No big secret protects the atomic bomb. The U.S. alone knows some engineering quirks, which other nations may learn in a few years.

7. All major powers have access to the necessary raw materials.

Uranium is fairly widely scattered about the earth, and atomic weapons from much more common materials are definite possibilities for the future.

8. The cost of atomic weapons is not prohibitive. Any nation that can afford a large army or navy can afford them.

9. Outproducing the enemy is not much advantage in atomic warfare. Two hundred bombs may be better than 100, but 10,000 is no better than 5,000, because 5,000 would destroy all important targets in a country. Consequently, a small, relatively poor nation might defeat a larger, richer nation.

10. Atomic weapons increase the incentive to aggression by multiplying the advantage of surprise.

11. International control will be extremely difficult. Expert inspectors will have to follow raw materials through every step of the process, which would be almost impossible in nations intent on evading control.

12. Publication of atomic research data will mitigate distrust, but complete national or international control of atomic research is impossible.

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