ee F. Swe The basic principles upon which the concept of operation was developed included dividing the real estate in the best manner possible to reduce mutual interactions between the programs of individual agencies. The assignment of testing areas by agency was also based on the assumption that no yield greater than 5 megatons should be fired at Eniwetok. 3. Weather and Geography Taongi Atoll is located approximately at latitude 168°, 50°E, and longitude 1k°, 40°N, 285 miles northeast of Bikini Atoll and gah"miles south-southeast of Wake Islend. The surface winds at Taongi are slightly more northerly, five to six degrees, and their average velocity is higher in that there are fewer days during the year (as compared to Bikini or Eniwetok) when the sur- face winds drop below five knots. The atoll is a lunar shaped crescent approximtely ten miles long and four miles wide at its mximum width. A chord joining the tips of the crescent lies along a NNW-SSE direction and approximtely norml to the wind, The lagoon is totallylandlocked except for a very narrow channel in the leeward reef. Narrow, long sand islands lie along the southeastern side of the atoll, running in the approximate direction of northeast to southwest. masses span a distance of some eight miles. These land Fallout Because of the unique position of Taongi, situated northwest of Bikini, the useable firing sector from the fallout standpoint is much greater than at either Bikini or Eniwetok. This is only true if one accepts as a concept of operation at Taongi the basic principle of treating the Taongi islands as inaccessible due to fallout radiation levels after the first large shot, which would be the proposed plan of operation. o oe Cost of Developing Taongi Atoll Another of the important factors bearing on the feasibility of the use of Taongi is the dollar cost for initial ertry and establishment of whatever beachhead and minimal facilities are necessary to fire large yield shots in the area, Logistics and Support ~ The magnitude of logistics support cost added to the costs of Item 5 above must be evaluated against those real savings of operational time which accrue through employment of triple atoll operations versus dual atoll operations. . Merce eee ee, fest Consideration aed Of the devices in Category A in the’tabie under tea1 above, one 10 a Tye (Nhich UCRL would like to test to full yield. This yield is 25 wr and, ie approved for test, will present very mJor problems when included in the program. - -