REPOSITORY
COLLECTION
0
C 32
——
Y¥b- 4!
(WN F-92L° FP —OOY
BOX NO] HPORMITION FOR THS PRESS
NO. 7O
December 1, 10¢¢
FOLDERcH<“EXT TolG,
632
UNITED STATES
ATOMIC ENERGY CO'ISSION
Brs. 307,308
Atth (r-1-7)
409624
“Mommowone
FOR SIMULTANEOUS RELEASE WITH
USASC RELEASE NO, 69, at 7;00 PM,
VST, MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1947
INFORMATION FORK THR PRESS PREPAR"D IN COLLABORATION
WITH THE
DSPARTMENT
OF STATS
AND
THE
NaTIONAL MILITARY EST..BLISHMSNT
TO SUPPLSM"NT THY STAY SMSNT OF
THES JNIT"SD STAPNS ATOMIC ENERGY
COMMISSION ON THR "STABLISHM™NT OF PACIFIC “UXPSNIMUNTAL INSTALLATIONS
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
The purpose of the installations now under construction in the Pacific
is to provide a suitable urea for the continuing conduct of a wide range of field
work to establish by experimentation the indicatsd r-sults of laboratory studies
curricd out in facilities of the atomic Snergy Commission. The scientific and
technical operations of the proving ground will orovide new fundamental data
und a brouder understanding of the phenomena of nuclour fission which will
facilitate advances in peaceful as well as in military applicstions of atomic
Cnergy.
all test operations wil] be under laboratory control conditions, with
full sucurity restrictions as required by the atomic Gnergy act of 1946,
The area of the installations will be closed as a safuguarding mctsure
as provided for in the United Nations Trusteeship Agreement for the former
Japanese mandated islends, and the Security Council of the United Nations will
be duly notified to this effect,
Bniwotok Atoll was seleceted as the site Por the proving grounds after
the careful considerution of all available Pucivic Islands.
Bikiniis not suitable
as the site since it lacks sufficient lend surfsee for the instrumentation
necessary to the scientific cbservations which must be made. Of other possible
sites, Bniwetok hus the fewest inhabitants to bs cured for, approximately 145, and
what is very important from a radivlogicel standpoint, it is isolated and there
The permanent transfer elsewhere of the island people now living on
Aomon and Biijiri Islands in [fniwetok Atoll will be necessary. They are not now
living in their original ancestral homes but in temporary structures provided for
them on the two foregoing islands to which they wore moved by United States forces
during the war in the Pacific, after they had scattered threughout the Atell to
avoid being pressed into labor service by the Japuncse and for protection against
military operations. The sites for the new hom:s of the leesl inhabitants will
be seleeted by them. The inhabitants concern:d will be reimbursed for lands
utilized anit will be given overy essistance ani cure in their-move te, and
.
Construction will be supported through the Heuwaiisn Islands, Johnston
Island and Kwajelein Island.
-
radioactive particles.
Lt?
are hundreds of miles of wspen seas in the dircetion in which winds might carry