there.
Most of the remaining military were Air
Kwajalein, 360 nmi (667 km) southeast of Enewetak.
Force
personnel
who
were
based
at
TEST PLANNING
The safety of the task force personnel conducting the test series was an important
factor in planning the conduct of the tests.
Pretest measures taken to ensure the safety
of personnel were:
1.
Modification
"washdown"
of
ships
systems
and
aboard
accumulation
and
the
pressurization
systems
entering aircraft.
aircraft,
ships
to
including
prevent
the
installation
radioactive
of
fallout
installation
of
filters
on
aircraft
to
prevent
radioactive
particles’
from
2.
Design of special protective clothing, including a leadcloth shroud
for aircraft pilots operating near the radioactive cloud.
3.
A training program in radiation safety procedures.
4.
The establishment of a technical support unit whose responsibility
was to provide the task force with expert assistance in radiation
safety,
including monitoring of
radiation,
decontamination
of
personnel, laboratory support, maintenance of exposure records, and
maintenance and calibration of radiation detection equipment.
5.
The establishment of a meteorology group whose responsibility was to
6.
The establishment of a program for the evacuation of all? personnel
from Enewetak Atoll for the MIKE test and the preparation of plans
for emergency evacuation of task force personnel from Bikini and
predict the direction of the winds aloft to avoid conducting the
tests during times when radioactive fallout might be carried in the
direction of the task force or inhabited islands.
Kwajalein. Marshall Islanders living at Ujelang were placed aboard
a Navy ship just before the MIKE detonation in readiness for
movement to safety if the fallout moved to the southwest.
7.
The
establishment
of
procedures
for
issuing
film badges
to
individuals whose activities might expose them to nuclear radiation
so that exposure records could be kept.
About 2,100 of the task
force personnel received these badges.
TEST OPERATIONS AND EXPOSURES
The conduct of the tests went essentially as planned.
The experimental MIKE device
performed successfully and the winds remained favorable, carrying the radioactive fallout
northwesterly over the open ocean.
The generally smooth MIKE operations were marred by an
accident when a single-place aircraft used for cloud sampling was lost at sea with its
pilot.
aircrew
This led to radiation exposures from 10 roentgens
that
flew
to
assist
the
downed
plane,
(R) to 17.8 R for the 7-man
considerably
permissible exposure (MPE) (3.9 R) of the operation.
greater
than
the
maximum
This crew crossed a zone of fallout
in order to reach the area of the downed plane as quickly as possible.
A crew of twelve in a second aircraft was also overexposed when caught in fallout
debris while on a photographic mission during the MIKE shot.
The highest exposure
this crew was 11.6 R.
Other than these two events, no other cases exceeded
established MPE during IVY.
for
the
Fallout occurred on JTF 132 ships and on Parry and Enewetak islands following MIKE and
KING.
A recent calculation based on data collected
anchored near the islands, indicates that cumulative
aboard three ships, which
personnel exposures due to
were
this