PREFACE
The work reported here may besaid with some precision to have had its inception in September, 1975

with an agreement between the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) and the
Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA), committing ERDA to provide technical support to DNA in the

cleanup of Enewetak. But in truth the effort had become an inevitable moral obligation of the
United States many years earlier, in 1947, when the People of Enewetak were persuaded to leave

their homeland to make way for our nation's atmospheric nuclear test activities. It might be said to
have begun in April 1972 when Ambassador Franklin Haydn Williams and High Commissioner Edward
E. Johnston promised the return of Enewetak to the administration of the Trust Territory. Or it
might be said to have begun at Enewetak on May 20th, 1972, on the occasion of the first visit of the
Enewetak leadership to their home atoil after 26 years away. On that latter occasion, Enewetak
Magistrate Smith Gideon closed a four-day conference by saying to the United States officials, "We
know that your people are going to help in cleaning up the place and preparing for our return to our
homeislands."
It was five years later that the mobilization for the cleanup occurred, and work began in earnest to
prepare for the return. The intervening time had been used in surveying, establishing criteria,
obtaining Congressional authorization and funding, planning, acquiring resources and developing
equipment and techniques.
Radiological support to the cleanup was assigned as a mission to the ERDA Nevada Operations
Office, which formed a project team known as the Enewetak Radiological Support Project (ERSP).
For the most part, this is the report of that Project from its first authorization on February 23,

1977, to the completion of the cleanup. At this writing the ERSP remains in being on at least an
informal basis, and will until this report goes to press.

A few brief words’about the role of the ERSP are in order. The key word in the Project name is

support. The Project Managerand his several Deputies did not direct the atoll cleanup action. They

recommended, advised and assisted Department of Defense officials in carrying out the Congress'
mandate for the cleanup. The Project takes full responsibility for its advice and recommendations,
but often the decisions of the Director, DNA, the Commander, Field Command or the Commanderof
the Joint Task Group necessarily took into account overriding considerations of a non-technical

nature. In these cases it was the responsibility of the ERSP Manager to define and articulate

alternatives and their likely consequences and then to fully support the decisions and actions of the
DOD. Another function which the ERSP did not perform was the establishment of criteria and
standards. These were given to us in guidance received from AEC, ERDA, and later, DOE
Headquarters. The ERSP management team interpreted these criteria and standards in terms
suitable for direction of the field effort.
A special note of acknowledgement is due Bert Friesen, who served as Editor and a major contributor
to this volume. The other members of the ERSP team are acknowledged and credited as appropriate
elsewhere in this report. I feel confident that I speak for all of them in observing that it has been a
rare privilege and a stimulating challenge to be a part of so unique a project of such high importance
to so deserving a group of people. We wish the People of Enewetak health, prosperity, happiness and
peace in their ancestral home.

Roger Ray, Project Manager
Enewetak Radiological Support Project
Nevada Operations Office

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