CHAPTER2
PLANNING AND PROGRAMMING
1972 - 1977
DECISIONS FOR THE FUTURE: APRIL 1972
The agreement under which Enewetak was used by the United States for
nuclear testing required a review on 30 June 1961 and every 5 years
thereafter to determine the need for its continued use.! During the June
1971 review, it became apparent that the need had dramatically declined
and that the atoll could be returned to the Trust Territory of the Pacific
Islands (TTPI). Nuclear testing at Enewetak had endedin 1958 whenit was
realized that atmospheric testing, even at that remoteatoll, was affecting
much of man’s environment. Enewetak’s remoteness then became a
iiability for most other test programs, in that it was less economical and
less practical than other available sites. For example, Johnston Atoll and
Christmas Island replaced Enewetak as the main bases for a series of
nuclear tests the United States conductedin 1962 after Russia had resumed
nuclear testing in the atmosphere in violation of the 1958 moratorium.
By 1971, only two military test programs were still scheduled at
Enewetak: (I) a U.S. Air Force space research program, and (2) the
Defense Nuclear
Agency’s
(DNA‘s)
proposed
Pacific Cratering
Experiment (PACE). Both were to be completed in 1973. There also were
iwo long-term biological studies being conducted by civilian agencies,
however, they did not conflict with the return of the atoll to the TTPI.
Based on the June 1971 review, the decision was made to terminate use of
Enewetak aS a test range and return the atoll to the TTPI.2 Under the
original agreement, the United States had 30 days to remove any
improvements and structures it desired to retain, after which everything
remaining reverted with the land to the TTP]. Since immediate departure
would have left much debris, many dilapidated buildings, and numerous
radiologically contaminated islands, the United States recognized a moral,
if not legal, obligation to restore the atoll to a more habitable condition.
An interagency conference on the return of Enewetak Atoll was held in
February 1972 in Washington, D.C., and attended by representatives from
the Office of Micronesian Status Negotiations (MSN), the Department of
Defense (DOD), the Departmentof the Interior (DOI), and the Atomic
Energy Commission (AEC). DNA also was represented, since it had
managed the cleanup of Bikini Atoll and was preparing to use Enewetak
for one last weapons-related experiment, the PACE program, before
return of the atoll by the United States. This conference marked the
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