According to the understanding reached in our discussion in Washington last week, I am submitting a request that our re- port "," July 5, 1950, by Clifford Beck and colleagues, be declassified. Six copies of the report are attached hereto, for use in pro- cessing through the routine declassification procedure.

Certain information contained in this report will prevent its declassification according to regulations now in effect. It is our hope, however, that the report may be judged by new guides, now under consideration, and that the new guides may be officially adopted in the very near future.

If it should develop that new guides which would permit the declassification of this report are not adopted, or if their ac- ceptance is unduly delayed, it is our request that the informa- tion contained in this report be specifically examined on the possibility that declassification may be permitted as an excep- tion to existing regulations, even though instructions of pre- sent guides might be overstepped at one or two points.

Finally, if neither of these courses are feasible, it is requested that declassification be accomplished with whatever minimum deletion is necessary.

Our concern in this involves much more than an academic interest in the present boundary between information of classi- fied and that of unclassified nature.

The ease or difficulty which we may experience in building the Nuclear Reactor described in this report, or indeed the feasibility of attempting the project at all, depends in a large part on the portion of the project which may be constructed and operated as an unclassified establishment. Hence our keen interest in this decision, and our desire for as early an answer as possible.