"30 July 1979 DEPARTMENT OF DEPENSE ACTIONS WITH REGARD TO ATMOSPHERIC NUCLEAR TEST PARTICIPANTS Between 1945 and 1962, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) carried out some 231 atmospheric nuclear tests, principally in Nevada and in the Pacific. An estimated 250,000 Department of Defense (DoD) personnel, military and civilian, participated in this testing. Until 1977, there was no indication that test participants were experiencing any adverse health effects which might be attributable to exposure to ionizing radiation at the tests. In 1977, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) discovered a possible leukemia cluster among participants in Shot SMOKY, Nevada, 1957. By late 1977, a DoD ad hoc com- mittee, working together with CDC, had reconstructed a list of SMOKY participants and identified eight leukemia cases. CDC calculations showed that the expected incidence of leukemia should be about three or four cases from among the 3200-odd DoD participants. CDC is still conducting an epidemiological study to determine the cause of these leukemias (which has not yet been determined to be radiation from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests}. Responding immediately to this initial indication of a possible health problem, DoD in 1977-78 commenced a major, high-priority program of wide-ranging actions on behalf of the atmospheric nuclear test participants. This program, the Nuclear Test Personnel Review (NTPR), is reconstructing a shot-by-shot history of atmospheric testing from the viewpoint of personnel participation, identifying DoD participants and their radiation dosages, assisting participants who are filing claims for what they believe to be testrelated radiation injuries, and sponsoring scientific followup studies by the National Academy of Sciences to investigate disease incidence among test participants and improve knowledge of the long-term biomedical effects of exposures to lowlevel ionizing radiation. EEF ¢.hp eetnle 7 &B a fF on 2 ww TU me he kl x ow