¢ o% A S December letter from Seaborg as Chairman of the NSC Committee on atmospheric testing policy to the President addresses some additional questions from the President following the submission of the total report of this committee. It would be very helpful to have copies of or access to the letters from the executive to the AEC and probably also to the DoD. several items. This letter deals with First of all Christmas Island where Seaborg states that technical discussions with the British on the nature of the program are scheduled in Washington on December 8th and 9th and at this time also the Secretary of State will be briefed on the status of Christmas Island. As to the specific dates for the beginning of this series it is to be set at 1 April for the time being and the earliest possible date that it is felt the very important high altitude effects test can be performed is mid-June, therefore, setting the end of the test window at arounl June 15th as the target date with the understanding that it may well be necessary to extend this date to about July Ist. But for purposes of planning the window is now set at 1 April through 15 June '62. In accordance with the President's request the 0 mene proposed atmospheric tests have been and are being thoroughly reviewed for - deletion, substitution, consolidation, etc. to reduce the number from to aa a lower number. While it is felt that all of these items are important, ~ Seaborg lists several suggestions for a few items which may be substituted underground, one particular pair of tests which may be consolidated, and also several tests which might be done in lieu of each other and which would allow for a reduction in the total numbers and in summary he states that there is attempt being made to reduce the number by about 5 to 7 tests. The a reduction in total yield would be very littie, about 2 to 4 hundred kilotons —— and this would be largely fission yield. Furthermore, Seaborg notes that a Study of ways to accelerate and exnand the underground test program is cur- rently underway. Betts sent a TWX to Bradbury and Foster on the 6th of December querying them as to the possibility of for various reasons and received a reply immediately from both laboratories to the effect that it is indeed feasible to do this. LASL, however, points out that it is not desirable to de , \ Az? A 7 December TWX from Betts to Hertford of ALO addresses Reeves request for urgently needed authorization to increase manpower and activities. Betts states that he realizes the urgency and the necessity, however, DMA cannot at this time authorize any further actions which might increase manpower ceilings or dollar committments but they expect relief from this Situation probably within a week. A memorandum for Gen. Betts from Cel. Banks with DMA on 7 December covers a JTF8 meeting of 6 December with Gen. Starbird. Adm. Mustum, Gen. Samuel, Mr. Howell of H&N, Shuster of Sandia, LRL, Herman Herlin of LASL, Mr. Miller of ALO and others in attendance. Gen. Starbird made some specific remarks on the status of the planning for the atmospheric program and gave a rundown as follows: Program will consist of 20 to 25 diagnostic tests and because of the inability to use Eniwetok and the question on Christmas Island many .