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Here is a !@->ril 1969 message from Ken Street of Livermore to Coronet oteware
of DMA «: - refers to a 16 April 1959 plan from Livermore fora proposed
undergrour
.3¢ program through about 1 September 1960.
< Z.
After presenting a
list of mans ots addressed to either detection research or weapons development
with ready
- «5 any time from June of 1959 into 1961,
and noting that the proposal
"covers °!:': + the same objectives as yours in the weapons development shots
but differ .
stantially in the exploratory shots," Street states ''The Laboratory
believes/:
tous 90-day readiness produces extensive wasted effort and
and will." - end lead to hurried and inefficient testing.
funds,
Furthermore, we
believe t*‘' ---ause of the international situation, it is very unlikely that we will
be permitted to test in the atmosphere in the near future; and therefore, that
the most probable form of test resumption will be underground,
later,
in space.
and somewhat
We do not feel that being excluded from the atmosphere will
severely hamper weapons development although there will be some delays in
getting started on tests in the larger sizes.
Therefore,
we strongly recommend
that plans be made for orderly and essentially continuous underground tests
as proposed in our plan and that tests in space be considered starting 12 to
18 months from now.'"' He then gives specific comments on the tests proposed
by DMA for underground and also, in the atmospheric regime, states ''Assuming
an unlikely EPG or ocean program,
we do not believe that we can be ready in
less than 6 months to do any more than very urgent "quick and dirty" tests."
The final paragraph refers to specific DMA questions and states:
‘Sufficient
diagnostics could probably be obtained in open ocean testing for all of the shots
listed using the same techniques used at Bikini during H-rdtack.
important diagnostic measurement could not be accomplished.
However, some
Shots inthe upper
atmosphere can be performed but only very rough diagnostic data could be obtained
next spring.
In about 18 months we expect that acceptable measurement techniques
would be developed."