7.1 It was concurred in by DMA on [8 May.
Al Graves relieved Don
Shuster of Sandia as head of Task Group 7.1,
to perform the residual!
B y
‘ddtles until an appropriate organization
is formed for a new operation.
‘The assumption of that responsibillty Is docum
ented in a message from
Al Graves to ALOO on 5 June.
Sebi
On towne
25 June 1959,_ General! Semmes sent a very pertinent memo to Hertford,
oar.
Shutt, Bradbury, Teller, and herete. The subject of it was what we should
B
be doing and seeking funding for relative to maintaining our test capabil‘Ities and carrying out preparations at test sites.
He stated that overall
there is little chance that surface testing at Eniwetok.will be resumed
within the next year or in the early future thereafter, that there is
little possibility of any high altitude or surface operations in alternate
areasduring this period, but that there is some probability that underground testing will be permitted but it is doubtful that we will get
authority to proceed for several months to come.
Along these lines,
Starboard says he cannot estimate how many months, but he doubts very much
that anything definite would be decided until the October 31 date rolls
around and perhaps not even then.
The AEC testing budget that went from
the President to Congress in January carried only 17.5 million dollars for
“full scale tests."
This was the amount that was felt justified on the
basis of cleaning up existing tunnels and placing operations on a maintenance
status.
Later this budget was revised upward to 27.5 mittion for FY 60.
This upward revision was based on doing certain preparatory work for
possiblc underground testing in Nevada.
Starboard states that this has
not yet been argued before Congress and there is a very good possibility
that congress may cut this number somewhat.
However,
the 27.5 million figure
represented about the moximum that OMA feld they could request without
running the dunger of having a vory substantial cut.
Starboard feels the
27.5 miltton should be used to keep the ACC "relatively well prepured to
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