White House Press Release

100 # 539 IMMEDIATE RELEASE MARCH 7, 1946 The President on March 4 signed an Executive Order which restores all public lands in the United States, including Alaska, to entry and other forms of disposal and use under the public-lands laws, except those lands containing substantial deposits of fissionable materials. Even where lands contain fissionable materials, the Exe- cutive order permits the lands to be disposed of under applicable land laws where the United States lawfully can reserve the right to minerals in the land, together with the right to enter upon the land and mine and remove such minerals. The order signed by the President also permits the leasing or other authorization to use public lands or their resources, in accord- ance with the public-land laws, providing that every lease, permit, or authorization which grants any right to remove minerals, or which is of a nature that it otherwise would preclude the United States from enter- ing upon the land and mining and removing minerals, contains a reser- vation of fissionable materials in the land and of the right to prospect NARA for, mine and remove such materials. Lands released from withholding by the order shall become sub- ject to application at 10:00 a.m. of the 28th day from the date of the signing of the order, subject to preference for veterans and others as provided by law. Lands acquired by the United States, as distinguished from public lands, likewise are released by the Executive order for disposal, lease and other authorization to use, according to law, subject to a reservation by the United States of fissionable materials in the lands and of the right to enter upon the lands and mine and remove such mate- rials. The order provides, however, that the reservations shall not interfere with the primary use of land as established or indicated by Congress and also that no reservation shall be required whenever the Secretary of the Interior determines that such lands do not contain substantial deposits of fissionable materials or that, in view of all the circumstances, there is no reasonable probability that such materials are present in quantities to justify their extraction. The Executive order revokes an order issued September 13, 1945, which withdrew and reserved for the use of the United States all public lands and acquired lands belonging to the United States containing radio- active mineral substances. The changes were recommended by the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, and the Surplus Property Administration, which had found the previous order unnecessarily restrictive. Since not all radio-active minerals are now regarded as fis- sionable, the new restrictions will apply only to land containing de- posits from which thorium, uranium (including uranium enriched as to one of its isotopes), and elements higher than uranium in the periodic table, can be refined or produced. In addition the order provides that other substances may be reserved when they have been determined by the President "to be readily capable of or peculiarly related to the trans- mutation of atomic species, the production of nuclear fission, or the release of atomic energy."