FOREWORD For 8 years, from 1972 until 1980, the United States planned and carried out the radiological cleanup, rehabilitation. and resettlement of Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. This project represented the fulfillment of a long-standing moral commitment to the People of Enewetak. The cleanup itself, executed by the Department of Defense (DOD), was an extensive effort, involving a Joint Task Force staff and numerous Army, Navy, and Air Force units and personnel. The rehabilitation and resettlement project, carried out by the Department of the [nterior concurrently with the cleanup, added complexity to the task and required the closest coordination — as did the important involvement of the Department of Energy (DOE), responsible for radiological characterization and certification. The combined effort cost about $100 million and required an on-atoll task force numbering almost 1,000 people for 3 years, 1977-1980. No radiological cleanup operation of this scope and complexity has ever before been attempted by the United States. This documentary records, from the perspective of DOD, the background, decisions, actions, and results of this major national and international effort. Every attempt has been made to record issues as they developed, and to show the results, good and bad, of specific decisions, oversights, etc. Because this documentary may have considerable importance in the future, and because specific needs for data cannot be foreseen with accuracy, every attempt has been made to record in some detail all major facets of the operation and to reference key documents. Throughout the research, collection, and writing, four major types of potential users have been kept in mind. The documentary is designed: — First, to provide a historical document which records with accuracy this major event in the history of Enewetak Atoll, the Marshall Islands, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Micronesia, the Pacific Basin, and theUnited States. To serve this end, the documentary addresses political, legal, administrative, and social issues, and it attempts to put the cleanup in perspective in terms of the prior history of Enewetak Atoll, World War II, the nuclear testing period, and the United Nations Trusteeship. — Second, to provide a definitive record of the radiological contamination of the Atoll. It addresses the origins of the contamination on a shot-by-shot basis; the types, concentrations, and locations of contamination prior to the cleanup; the radiological cleanup decisions and their rationale; the cleanup processes themselves; and the resulting radiological situation, island-by-island. It is believed that this type of data will be useful over the coming decades as living patterns on the Atoll change, new radiological surveys are taken, improved health physics vii