‘UFFICIAL USE GNLY
REPOSITORY Naga - College fk
OFFICIAL USE ONLY
COLLECTIONRG-226- Offie ofthe Secerlary
‘st 58
BOX No. A03 (nw - 326 -93-o18)
UNITED STATES
ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION
WASHINGTON 25, D.C.
FOLDER MR&A - 7
June 2, 1958
Memorandum For:
Subject:
Ha-dtack vl. 3%
408484
Those Listed Below
| (
EXPANDED STANDARD FORM FOR ANNOUNCEMENT OF TESTS
IN HARDTACK SERIES,
Commissioner Libby proposes that we expand the announcements of shots in the HARDTACK series to include the purpose
of the shot, the place of firing, the yield in megaton or
kiloton range, the coordinates of the firing place to the nearest
second and the time of detonation to the nearest tenth of a
second,
The Divisions of Military Application and Information
services believe that the purpose of the shots and the general
size of yield should not be given.
Of the 15 shots which have been or are to be announced
under the criteria adopted by the Commission and the Department
of Defense only five are under one megaton. The result of
announcing the yield in kiloton or megaton range would be to
give the impression that the series included mainly detonations
of megaton range and call in question our earlier announcement
that the series was in considerable part for the purpose of
developing small weapons.
For this reason the staff divisions
recommend against giving yield ranges.
The reasons for staff disfavoring announcement of purpose
of shots are as follows:
1, Announcement of purpose would give the USSR a better
idea of the U.S,
2.
over~all approach in weapons development.
Several of the devices have two or more purposes.
If only one purpose is stated for these weapons we will
mislead the public; it seems undesirable for intelligence
reasons to announce all purposes of all shots,
There is no difference of opinion on giving place of
firing, and accurate information on the coordinates and on the
time.
Attached is a new standard form suggested by Dr. Libby's
office,
I would like to discuss it with the Commissioners in
the next executive session.
If we approve, the changes in
standard form will be submitted to the Department of Defense for
concurrence,
/s/ R. W. Cook
Attachment
OFFICIAL ‘USE ONLY
Ks-o-2
Acting General Manager