Head of U.S. Atomic Energy Body Visits Israel, Views Projects Today

Prof. Glenn T. Seaborg, chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, accompanied by two other high AEC officials, will start a tour of Israeli atomic installations tomorrow. The group arrived here Saturday night, and spent today sightseeing across the border in Jordan, where the Americans visited Christian shrines. But beginning tomorrow, they will go to Israel’s atomic reactor at Nahal Rubin, and to the Weizmann Institute for Science at Rehovot, where they will visit nuclear research projects under way there.

The Americans said the visit to Israel is “purely informational, “and declared there were no specific subjects in mind. However, it was understood that United States participation in Israel’s projected nuclear desalination project is expected to come up in discussions between Dr. Seaborg and his colleagues on the one hand, and Israeli officials on the other. Tomorrow, Prof. Seaborg is expected to meet also with Prime Minister Levi Eshkol at a seaside hotel where the latter is vacationing. Accompanying Dr. Seaborg are James T. Ramsey and Myron Kratser.

(In New York, an article in The New York Times today pointed out that it is cheaper now for a non-nuclear power to make an atomic bomb than ever before, and cites Israel as an example of a state which could start in a matter of months on nuclear weapon production. But Dr. Arthur Larson of Duke University, chairman of a group of leading citizens including a dozen Nobel laureates, who are opposed to nuclear proliferation, would not estimate how long it would take Israel, India, Sweden and West Germany, who could start in a matter of months, to produce their first weapon.)