DEPARTMENT OF STATE - -- I 7 R 57 412 are 2 2a2 FOR RM USE ONLY EUR Au1589 CONFIDENTIAL CUE NOscreen mm or idol its 2 rNro Amembassy PARIS LONDON 3mm BRUSSELS for BUSEC FED Lima i NQUTION l dtd XMB ARMY CIA if 0 03D USIA FROM Amembassy BONTN DATE December 28 1962 in Atomic Energy Matters REF embassy 131-41158 it FOR sor Pass AFC 1 -Evidence appears to be accumulating that a conscious effort is underway to develop closer cooperation between France and Germany in the atomic energy field - Two groups of French nuclear experts one comprising industry representatives and the other government nuclear scientists have recently visited the Federal Republic we have been-informed that a group of fifteen French industrialists made up of representatives of the chemical metallurgical and electronic industries involved in the French atomic program visited Bonn on -December 15 for consultations with representatives of the ATOM FORUM The latter organization is composed of representatives of German industry science and government and has as its objective the promotion of a more intensive nuclear energy program in the Federal Republic The visit was arranged by Prince Otto Bismarck one of the directors of the ATOM FORUM and a member of the German parliament According to Dr Adolphe Lute French Scientific Attache in Bonn it was the avowed it 'purpose of this visit to establish closer relations between French and' German industries serving the nuclear energy fields _ Dr Lutz did make an interesting remark in Stating that the Germans had something to learn organizationally from the French on the delineation of nuclear energy activities between_government and industry Perhaps this was implied by the fact that Professor Jean Lamberton president of the a7 st it CONFIDENTIAL JFK FORM 4 62 05- 323 3% s1niliil_ Drafted by Clearances Lament EL rmH'IEano Approved bly to S A FAudrieth 1131 M rot as In Draft POL - Miss Brown BOON - Mr Merrill ii sexism - - mammal - tr- CONFIDENTIAL lage 2 - Airgram No 138 Amembassy Bonn French atomic ferum A T E N addressed a selected group of Germans on the subject Relationships between the Atomic Industry and Government in France We learned quite by accident through a chance-remark made by Staatssekretaer Cartellieri of the Ministry for Scientific Research previously the Ministry for Atomic Energy that this group had also conferred with Ministry officials We subsequently learned from Dr Hans Sauer of the Ministry for Scientific Research that exchange visits by French and German nuclear scientists respectively had been under may for some time with the objective of exploring possibilities for undertaking'cooperative reSearch Sauer himSelf had during the past year visited a-number of French nuclear Science installations We were also advised that there had been an interchange of letters between Dr Balevski of the_French Ministry of Science and Professor_Dr Balke former Federal Minister for Atomic Energy and that arrangements had been formalized for a meeting of scientific experts in Bonn a conference which took place on December l9-20 The French delegation was led by a Dr leperrin Dis- cussions covered possible cooperative research on such problems as re- processing of spent nuclear fuels with particular reference to'R D involving liquidmliquid extraction prbcedures and fundamental work entailing the use_of fused melts in purification procedures and the fundamental chemistry of plutonium Dr Sauer stated rather'positively that the Germans-prefer bi lateral agreements to multimlateral-relationships on technical problems He also stated that-the Ministry for Scientific Research-had obtained a tentative commitment for the coming year of some 2ni'million-DM as an initial contribution to finance such a joint research effort Dr Sauer also stated that ABC would be advised of the nature of the work to be undertaken jointly by the French and the Germans He also indicated that discussions covered the possible construction and establishment of a jointly operated research center whose personnel would be made up of representative groups of French and German scientists we have previously pointed cut that the DeGaulle visit to Bonn had been followed by exploratory talks designed to effect closer cooperation between Germany and France in the scientific technical and educational areas It is our surmise that the present visits represent further efforts on the part of the respective governments to implement the DeGaullenAdenauer mandate although interestingly enough the Foreign Office professed to know nothing about these arrangements So far as we are aware no similar discussions and conversations have taken place between German groups and other EEC member_ states During the course of conversations with Dr Sauer we did learn that the Italian nuclear energy agency had made overtures to the French organization for a joint Francowltalian program apparently this fact had been used by the French to speed up Franco German negotiations to force_the FRG into making commitments with respect to Franco German cooperative efforts The Embassy has noted a news report datelined Bonn en the meeting of the industrialists which appeared in The Times London December 21 and which In AuthorinsUi omnimanuJ Page 3 Airgram No 1589 Amembassy Bonn large-1y confirms the information available to us except that none of the Germans have mentioned the of a connection between this project 'and EURATOWI For the A assador A udwig F Audrieth Scientific Attache CONFIDENTIAL This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu