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> REPRODUCED ATTHETNATIONAL’ARCHIVES -
UNITSD STATES
ATOIMLC ENSRGY COMMISSION
Wasnington, D.C.
INFORMATION FOR THE PRESS
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409270
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FOR SIMULTANEOUS RELEASEVWITE:
NO. 70
December 1, 1947
Tel. EX. 1616, Brs. 307,308
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USABC RELEASE No.” 69,.:abn La?
7PM, of
FST, MONDAY, DECEMBER 1; Ws47.
INFORMATION FOR THR PRESS PREPARED IN COLLABORATION
WITH, HE:
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
AND
THE
NATIONAL MILITARY. ESTABLISHMENT. oe
TO SUPPLEMENT THE STs.TSMENT OF
THE UNITED STATES ATOMIC: BNERGY.S,
COMMISSION ON THE BSTABLISHM™NT OF PACIFIC @XPSRIMENTAL INSTALLATION
The purpose of the installations now under construction in the paeders:
is to provide a suitable area for the continuing conduct of a wide range of!ifield
work to establish by experimentation the indicated results of labo ratoryvatudde; :
carried out in facilities of the ztomic Energy Commission, The seientifie®
yeand technical operations of the proving ground will provide new fundamental dates
and o broader understanding of the phonomena of nuclear fission whioh wilt
facilitate advances in peaceful os well as in military applications of atoms!
energy.
ay
all test operations will be under laboratory control conditions, with’’.
full security restrictions as required by the Atomic Snergy act of 1946, —
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The area of the installations will be closed as a safeguarding measure
as provided for in the United Nations Trustceship Agreement for the former
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Japanese mandated islends, and the Sccurity Couneil of the United Nations will
be duly notificd to this effect.
Eniwotok Atoll was seleet.d as the site for the proving grounds after
the careful consideration of oll available Pacific Isloands,
Bikiniis not suitable
as the site since it lacks sufficient land surface for the instrumentation
necessary to the scientific observations which must be made. Of other possible
sites, Eniwetok has the fewest inhabitants to be cared for, approximately” 145, and
what is very important from a radislogical standpoint, it is {solated and”$héro:
are hundreds of miles of open seas in the direetion in which winds might: carry: |
radioactive particles.
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Construction will be supported through the Hawaiian Tslands, Jonge
Island and Kwajelein Island,
The permanent transfer elsewhere of the island people now.living,ont ,
Aomon and Biijiri Islands in Eniwetok Atoll wil] be necessary. They,‘ardnoty
Wye
living in their original ancestral nomes but in temporary structures pee
them on the two foregoing islands to which they were moved by United States Oroes
during the war in the Pacific, after they had scattered throughout the Abelhbo |
avoid being pressed into labor service by the Japanese and for protection,pebinst
military operations. The sites for the new homes of the local pohabitanga)” ‘
be selected by them. The inhabitants concerned will be reimbursedfor :Lay
andsjy.
utilized and will be given every assistance and care in their move’“to,” any
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COLLECTION ko 326
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BOX No
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BEST COPY AVAILABLE -.
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REPOSITORY NARA [Coll
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