Historian Peter Kuznick, in a 2011 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists article, dug up a fact new to me:
Murray and Rep. Sidney Yates (Democrat of Illinois) suggested locating the first electricity-producing nuclear power plant in Hiroshima. In early 1955, Yates introduced legislation to build a 60,000-kilowatt generating plant there that would ‘make the atom an instrument for kilowatts rather than killing.’
Kuznick, Peter. 2011. “Japan’s nuclear history in perspective: Eisenhower and atoms for war and peace.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Apr. 13).
Clearly this was a pawn move in the never-ending battle between the public electricity and private sector electricity proponents. He certainly cannot have canvassed the idea in Japan.
