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The news that the U.S. was building an atomic submarine had implications far greater than the single addition of another powerful weapon to the nation's arsenal. It meant that the stocks of rare fissionable material, long in short supply, had reached the point where some could be diverted to uses other than the production of huge bombs. Through chinks in the security wall, the armed forces could be heard talking of smaller atomic bombs for tactical use, and of atomic aircraft carriers. The aircraft industry knows that one company already has a contract for a plane to be powered by an atomic reactor. General Electric has the contract to build the reactor and is now at work on it. And an atomic power plant in a submarine was further proof that atomic energy for industrial use was no pipe dream.