UNITED STATES ENERGY COM .SSION 411723 NEVADA OPERATIONS OFFICE . P.O. BOX 14100 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA 89114 —€aptain cay SUH GO co * 372 N “ Major Fava Major Cotner R. E. Hollingsworth . MrEIttTe™eee, General Manager, HQ i ENIWETOK During the past approximately one year, NV has become aware of, and I have become increasingly coucerned about, certain conditions and activities at Fniwetok Atoll. My concern stems from three facts: a. It has appeared probable that Eniwetok, which has not yet had a Bikini-style radiological cleanup, would soon be a candidate for rehabilitation and return to the Marshallese. Since mid-April 1972, this probability has become reality, with a public commitment by the United States to return Eniwetok to the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands by the end of 1973. | (See Encl. 1). b. It has been known, due to the nature of the testing which was conducted at Eniwetok, that cleanup and rehabilitation when it did occur would be significantly more difficult and more costly than had been similar activities at Bikini. It was also suspected that increased environmental sensitivity and political and public visibility would be complicating factors in an Eniwetok rehabilitation. c. There were and are on-going activities of the Department of Defense and other public and private egencies which could aggravate the known (and unknown) radiological problems and which could subject their participants to unnecessary and unacceptable radiological exposures. The following is a chronology of recent NV actions pertaining to Eniwetok : July 1971 REPOSITORY poe H setoryDa y i34o"" Uu WD COLLECTION 0.6 3U pny rornn, —= FOLDER Olan tetion mesh NV and EPA participated with Air Force PACE Program personnel in a preliminary site selection visit to Eniwetok. ‘The Air Force BEST COPY AVAILABLE “Craw ° a ATTACHMENT 1