§ 56. Mr. Masonasked the Prime Minister to what extent the Harwell successes in taming the hydrogen bomb for peaceful purposes have been denied publicity 109W by the joint declassification committee; how close is the co-operation on this committee with United States scientists; and why a full interim statement cannot be made on the progress of these experiments.
§ The Prime MinisterThe general state of progress of work on controlled thermonuclear reactions remains as explained to the House by my right hon. Friend the Paymaster-General on 11th November. Promising results have been obtained in the apparatus ZETA, but the interpretation of these will take time.
There is full and mutually-beneficial collaboration between Great Britain and the United States on all research work in this field. One aspect of the collaboration is the adoption of common rules for the classification of information. The proposals of a joint United States/United Kingdom Committee for the declassification of certain categories of information are now under consideration. If these proposals are accepted, it will be possible to make public more details about the work now going on in both countries.