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The Under Secretary of Energy
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Washington, OC 20585

MAY 0 9 1991

The Honorable Ron De Lugo
Chairman, Subcommittee on insular
and International Affairs
Committee on Interior
and Insular Affairs
U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, DC

20515

Dear Mr. Chairman:
I am writing to you in response to your letter of October 5,

1990, to

Mr. Harry U. Brown, Nevada Operations Office (NV), and to your letter of
November 19, 1990, to Mr. Nick C. Aquilina, Manager, NV,

in which you

requested a copy of the study referenced under “objectives” of the
“Radiological Survey Plan for the Northern Marshall Islands," Department of
Energy (DOE), August 22, 1978.
I am sorry for the lengthy time in responding
to your request. It has been difficult finding the appropriate individuals
who participated in the study. A thorough search has been necessary to verify
if a formal report of the study was indeed prepared.
The "DOE study" you referenced was, in fact, a review by the technical staff
at Headquarters, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), of files containing
information on nuclear tests conducted at Bikini and Enewetak atolls. We
contacted Mr. Tommy McCraw who was an AEC employee at that time and was one of
the technical staff members involved. According to Mr. McCraw, the review
included available radiological monitoring data and the meteorological
information for each test. For the tests with the higher fission yields,
fallout trajectories were developed from the winds for the day of the test,
and atolls were identified that most likely received close-in fallout. The
calculations used to do this analysis were prepared as draft working notes,
were never formally published, and are no longer available. The only
published information from this "DOE study" was included as Tab 8
(Enclosure 1) of the report referenced above. This enclosure identifies the
11 atolls and 2 islands that were designated for inclusion in the 1978 Aerial
Radiological Survey.
The logistical aspects of obtaining the aerial survey data used to conduct
this screening survey were coordinated by NV. The NV had no role, however, in
the analysis of the data and the development of the data in Tab 8.

Enclosure 2 is a Preface that describes the process by which this chart of the
atolls and islands to be surveyed was determined. This Preface was never

A

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It is provided to assist you in
published as a part of any-survey report.
your understanding of how the study was conducted.

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