Bikini, the Eneman base camp was to be the center of operations.

Parties

recovering scientific data soon after the shot would operate from Navy
vessels in the lagoon, until early radiological surveys determined that
the atoll environment was safe enough to move data-recovery operations
ashore.

When shot BRAVO, the first CASTLE shot at Bikini, was detonated on
1 March, it contaminated the base facilities on Eneman Island and the preoperation plan was abandoned.

To provide for personnel safety during re-

covery operations, four Navy ships served as platforms for TU 7 radsafe
activities

(Reference 9, Annex N).

These functions are indicated in Ta-

ble ll.

Table 11.

Shipboard radsafe activities, CASTLE.
Radsafe
Center

Radsafe
Checkpoint

Decontamination
Station

X

X

X

Curtiss (AV-4)

xX

X

Fred C. Ainsworth (T-AP-181)

X

xX

Location
Bairoko (CVE-115)

Estes (AGC-12)

X

A barge moored alongside the Ainsworth provided the radsafe checkpoint

and decontamination station.
The task force conducted radsafe operations from these vessels for the
remaining four shots at Bikini.

To alleviate the crowded working space

conditions, the Curtiss and the Ainsworth's radsafe barge were designated

as radsafe subcenters, primarily for the use by, and control of, personnel
from TG 7.1 and TG 7.5

(Reference 17, p. 14).

Because the entire atoll had been contaminated to some extent, all task

force personnel stationed at Bikini lived aboard ship for the remainder of
the Bikini shots.

No personnel left shipboard without permission.

Entry

and exit at contaminated areas were strictly controlled through radsafe

127

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