yay OCR Mak} 2% -3- Julius H. Rubin for a Japanese team who came into the Trust Territory in December at the invitation of Representative Balos. The Japanese had planned to perform medical examinations on Rongelap and Utirik. ENIWETOK ATOLL The former residents of Eniwetok, now living on Ujelang Atoll 150 miles to the southeast, have made the decision to return to Eniwetok before the end of 1972. The leaders of the Eniwetok people have appointed an OEO Legal Service lawyer as their official counselor and representative. Complicating this matter are plans by DOD to conduct a series of high explosive tests in the atoll with cratering events having yields up to 500 tons. This is a portion of Pacific Cratering Experiments (PACE), a program sponsored by the Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA) using the Air Force Weapons Laboratory (AFWL) as the operating agency. Test areas have been identified on six different islands where craters of various sizes will be generated. The sites chosen have been affected by past nuclear tests and contain various quatities of radioactive debris. The people of Eniwetok know of these planned tests. Although an Environmental Statement (dated November 1971) has been prepared, the Director DNA in a memo to Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health and Environment), dated January 17, 1972, states that DNA does not consider this experimental series a "Major Action Significantly Affecting the Quality of the Human Environment.” In a memo to Armistead I. Seldén, Jr., Deputy Assistant Secretary, International Security Affairs, U. S. Department of Defense, dated January 31, 1972, Ambassador Franklin Daydn Williams, the President's personal repre- sentative for Micronesian status negotiations, states that these negotiations are in a critical stage and that conducting these experiments before the next series of talks in early April would run the unacceptable risk of focusing unfavorable attention on U. S. military requirements in the Trust Territory, give anti-U.S. elements a theme to exploit, and thus jeopardize the success of the negotiations. He further states the belief that PACE can be conducted without harming the negotiations if the time schedule for commencement can be slipped to about May 1 or later and a time schedule for return of the various islands can be worked out. Responding to this memo, Mr. G. Warren Nutter, Office of Secretary of Defense, in a memo to the Director DNA, dated February 8, 1972, concurs with continuance of the PACE program provided there is public release of the PACE environmental statement and preparation of a public affairs plan by DNA. AEC staff have now been advised that the environmental statement will - be issued about May 1. Jyzen 3EF - CC T ee . : £32 ene FT