who can fill this vacuum be undertaken and prosecuted to its completion.
LOCATION OF AN ATOMIC WEAPONS PROVING GROUND
The selection of a site suitable for testing atomic weapons involves many considerations which are difficult to reconcile.
The
widely current belief in the pervasiveness and the deadly effect of
an atomic explosion now makes it necessary to conduct such tests in
an area far removed from human habitation.
In reality, the interests
of safety require only that the site be (1) located in an area in
which the winds can be depended upon to drift the cloud away from
inhabited areas and (Z) isolated only to the extent necessary to avoid
the injury to personnel and the damage to property which might result
from the heat and concussion produced by the explosion. Otherwise,
isolation is important only as an adjunct to security.
Weather has been an important factor in all atomic tests con-
ducted in the past and it is likely to remain so in the future because
of foreseeable difficulties in the operation of cloud-sampling aircraft, the limitations of ground and aerial photographic techniques,
and the effect of wind drift on the dispersion of the atomic cloud.
Weather conditions favorable to the conduct of tests gust include (1)
good visibility between the point of detonation and camera positions
in the air and on the ground, (2) absence of precipitation in a wide
area around the point of detonation, (3) a minimum of cloud cover, and
(4) wind characteristics in which a great degree of reliability with
regard to velocity and direction at all altitudes prevails.
Section VIII
Finally,