DEFENSE NUCLEAR AGENCY WASHINGTON, D.C. 20305 409814 DOCUMENT DOES NO T CONTAIN ECI 52 ., / Reviewed by.77 Ztelluetoler ris ao’ Subject: Fact Sheet - Enewetak Operation In April 1980 the Department cf Defense (DoD) will return Enewetak Atoll to its People. This event will mark ihe end of the largest radiological cleanup operation ever conducted ond will fulfill ¢@ moral obligation incurred by the United States thirty-three yecrs ago. This parer suimmorizes these events from the perspective of DoD. Enewetak is the northwestern atoll in the Marshall Is!ands--which themselves are one of the major island groups in Micronesia and in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPl). Enewetak jies some 2400 nautical miles west-southwest of Honolulu. The atoll is formed by a coral reef, oval in shape, which surrounds a lagoon stretching some 23 miles in a general north-south direction and |7 miles east-west. Rising from ihe reef at intervals along its circumference are some 40 low, sandy islands--most of them quite smcli. The People of Enewetck--who have lived on the atoll for centuries, and who are different in many ways from other Marshall Islanders--subdivide into two groups: the dri-Enewetak, whose home is the largest southern island of the atoll (Enewetak); and the cri-Enjebi, whose home is the largest island in the north (Enjebi). Enewetak's role in the nuclear age began shortly after World War Il, when the imperatives of national security required the establishment of several proving grounds for the testing of nuclear weapons. Enewetak was one of the principal sites selected for this testing, particularly for the higher-yield thermonuclear devices that were then in the conceptual stage. The People of Enewetak--then numbering about 1!50--were relocated in 1947 to a much smaller atoll, Ujelang, some !25 miles to the southwest. A large scientific and military task force, under the joint direction of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC--now the Department of Energy (DcE)) and DoD, established its headquarters on the southern islands of Enewetak Atoll. Between 1948 and 1958, 43 nuclear tests were carried out on the atoll. The great majority were conducted in the northeastern quadrant, to keep the base camps in the south free of contamination. Some of the "ground zeros" were on the islands themselves, some were on the reef, some were in the lagoon, and one was in the ocean nearby. The tests were detonated in the air, on towers, on the surface of islands and reefs, on barges, and underwater. The nuclear weapons developed through this decade-long test program have been major elements in the mechcrism of deterrence which has ensured the security of the free wor!d and the absence of nuclear wer for succeeding decades. In 1958 the U.S. ceased nuclear testing on Enewetak, in response to a trilateral US-UK-USSR testing moratorium. However, radioactive debris and fission products from the detonations and the resulting fallout contaminated most of the northern islands to varying degrees. The southern islands, which had been used as a base for the scientific task force, remained relatively uncontaminated. REPOS!TORY PNNL . COLLECTION Marsha |] BOX No. FOIDER Tslands SG&S Enewetak l@74