Sites in the Atlantic, the Caribbean, and the Pacifie were reviewed. In the Pacific were little islands set in great reaches of otherwise empty ocean and enjoying the warm and stable climate of the trade-wind zone. In the Marshalls, so recently captured from the Japanese, were coral atolls that had been little disturbed by the war, that were inhabited only by small communities of Micronesians, and over which an interim control was exercised by the United States through the Navy Military Government. Among these was Bikini Atoll. Bikini fulfilled all the conditions of climate and isolation. It was distant, 2,500 miles west-southwest of Honolulu, 4,500 miles by air from San Francisco, but it also was accessible to the military support facilities that still existed at Kwajalein Atoll, to the southeast, and at Eniwetok, to the west. Its inhabitants, who then numbered 162, could be movedto another atoll during the period of the tests. Joint Task Force One went out of existence on 1 November 1946 following detonation of Tests Able and Baker at Bikini and subsequent reduction of the site to an interim status. The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 created the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission which took over the responsibilities of the Manhattan District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on 1 January 1947. The Commission was to conduct a program of atomic energy development, including improvement of nuclear weapons and, of necessity, a program of proof testing in the field. In July, 1947, the commission announced thatit was establishing proving grounds in the Pacific for routine experiments and tests of atomic weapons. The place selected was not Bikini, but Eniwetok Atoll. (Hines, 1962, p. 78.) The process of selection of Eniwetok included a review of possibilities that had been examined prior to the earlier selection of Bikini. A location within the continental United States was initially considered with a view toward finding a site suitable for a permanent establishment. A return to Bikini apparently was not contemplated at any time, not only because Bikini was in an interim status and scheduled for further observation, but because the land areas were neither large enough nor properly oriented to the prevailing winds to permit construction of a major airstrip. Sites in the Indian Ocean and in Alaska were studied, and some thought was given to Kwajalein. The review of all practical sites concluded that Eniwetok offered all of the advantages found earlier at Bikini plus the presence of established airstrips and facilities. Westward, in the direction in which the prevailing winds might carry radioactive particles, lay hundreds of miles of open sea. The tentative selection of Eniwetok was followed by an inspection of the atoll and conferences with the leaders of the people of Eniwetok. The site was approved by President Truman on 2 December 1947. On the same day, the United States representatives to the United Nations notified the Security Council that effective 1 December 1947, pursuant to the provisions of the Trusteeship Agreement, Eniwetok Atoll was closed for security reasons in order that necessary experiments relating to nuclear fission could be conducted there. The people of the atoll were to be moved to a new home, and the press release by the Atomic Energy Commission noted: "Eniwetok Atoll was selected as the site for the proving grounds after the careful consideration of all available Pacifie Islands. Bikini is not suitable as the site since it lacks sufficient land surface for the instrumentation necessary to the scientific observations which must be made. Of other possible sites, Eniwetok has the fewest inhabitants to be cared for, approximately 145, and, what is very important from a radiological standpoint, it is isolated and there are hundreds of miles of open seas in the direction in which winds might carry radioactive particles." "The permanent transfer elsewhere of the Island people now living on Aomon and Bifjiri Islands in Eniwetok Atoll will be necessary. They are not now living in their original ancestral homes but in temporary structures provided for them on the two foregoing islands to which they were moved by United States forces during the war in the Pacific, after they had scattered throughout the Atoll to avoid being pressed into labor service by the Japanese and for protection against military operations. The sites for the new homes of the local inhabitants will be selected by them. The inhabitants concerned will be reimbursed for lands utilized and will be given every assistance and care in their move to, and re-establishment at, their new location. Measures will be taken to insure that none of the inhabitants of the area are subject to danger; also that those few inhabitants who will move will undergo the minimum of inconvenience." (Richard, 1957, V. IIL p. 553.)