NUCLEAR CONTROL INSTITUTE 1000 Connecticut Avenue NW Suite 400 Washington DC 20036 202-822-8444	NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE Gelman Library, Suite 701, The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington DC 20037 202-994-7000
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, June 21, 2004	CONTACT: Paul Leventhal (NCI) Thomas Blanton (NSA)

30 YEARS OF NUCLEAR HISTORY ARE PRESERVED

IN COLLECTION OF NUCLEAR CONTROL INSTITUTE'S PAPERS

AT THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE

Washington---A collection of 293 boxes of papers spanning more than 30 years of nuclear history has been established by the Nuclear Control Institute at the National Security Archive, NCI and NSA announced today.

The collection includes the papers of the Nuclear Control Institute from its founding in 1981 to the present, as well as the papers of NCIs founding president, Paul Leventhal, relating to his nuclear investigative and legislative work in the U.S. Senate in the 1970s.

The NCI papers cover the Institutes engagement in the leading nuclear non-proliferation issues of the past 2½ decades, beginning with Israels bombing of Iraqs still-unfinished Osirak reactor that coincided with NCIs founding in 1981 through present-day U.S. efforts to uncover evidence of Iraqi programs to develop nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. The collection includes correspondence, analyses, investigative reports, legal briefs, testimony and other items that document NCIs ground-breaking efforts to prevent nuclear terrorism, to eliminate commerce in plutonium and bomb-grade uranium, to strengthen enforcement of international safeguards and other non-proliferation obligations, and to dispose of excess U.S. and Russian warhead plutonium by disposing of it as waste rather than introducing it as fuel in commercial nuclear power plants.

Leventhals Senate papers begin with the Senate Government Operations Committees investigation, hearings and draft legislation leading to enactment of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, which abolished the Atomic Energy Commission and replaced it with independent regulatory and promotional agencies---the present-day Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Department of Energy. The Senate papers also cover the committees investigation of U.S. exports of plutonium, bomb-grade uranium and "sensitive nuclear technology that led to enactment of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act of 1978. These papers also include the Senates special investigation of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, which Leventhal co-directed in 1979, and enactment of lessons-learned legislation in 1980.

The National Security Archive is fortunate to acquire such a rich historical record of the past three decades of efforts to stop the further spread of nuclear weapons and prevent nuclear terrorism, said Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive. These papers will be of immense value to journalists, members of the public and future historians who want insights into early efforts to curb nuclear dangers.

Leventhal, who will continue to manage NCI as a website-based program and to remain engaged in proliferation issues, said: The Institutes papers will help to maintain a marketplace of ideas that is so essential to ensuring that the non-proliferation community is both relevant and effective in addressing the fast-paced nuclear developments confronting the world today. He noted that in addition to donating its papers to the National Security Archive, NCI is scanning and key-wording its core documents going back to 1981 that pre-date its website, so that they will also be word searchable on the NCI website.

A summary of the highlights of the NCI Collection is attached to this press release.  The complete subject catalogue of boxes will be available on the websites of the Nuclear Control Institute (www.nci.org) and the National Security Archive (www.nsarchive.org), as well as a word searchable on the ALADIN, the shared online digital library catalog of the Washington Research Library Consortium (WRLC). Access to the boxed collection is only through a National Security Archive staff member. Please consult the Guide for Researchers at http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nsa/archive/resguide.htm for information on how to research the Archives unpublished document collections.

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