More background details on the military and civil defense
participation are given in Section Five.
Smali to large groups of Congressmen and other public offi-

cials have attended many detonations in all Nevada series.

group of NATO observers witnessed the May 5, 1955, shot.

A

Costs of Nevada Tests

Exact costs of Nevada test cperations, even aside from the
cost of fissionable materials expended, have not been segregated
and probably cannot be. It was estimated that the cost of the
originally-scheduled ten shots in the Spring 1953 series would be
about. $15,000,000 for the AEC and about $15,000,000 for the DOD,

or approximately $3,000,000 a shot.

rough estimate.

This still may be a fairly

Postponements

In the five series, there were approximately 103 postponements or delays. More than 80 were caused by unacceptable weather.
Other causes included: aircraft engine failure, one; construction,
one; delays in instrumentation, three; aircraft operations, two;
contamination of firing areas by previous shots, two; one shot was
prevented from detonating by a built-in checking device when a key
experiment was not receiving data; another did not detonate because
of failure in an electrical connection. A majority of postponements
for weather were day by day, but when air drops were involved the
initial postponement was usually 48 hours.
Operating Controls

Controls and procedures to prevent hazard to on-site participants or to the off-site public have been successful. Only one
person, a test participant, has been injured seriously as a result
of the 45 detonations. Outside the Test Site, there has been no
instance of hazardous exposure of human beings to radiation from
fallout, and no injury from blast waves or the flash of light.
There were instances of property damage, such as broken windows,
from blast in the Las Vegas area and in St. George -~ mainly confined to eariier series.
Cattle and horses grazing within a few
miles of the detonation suffered skin deep beta radiation burns on

their hides (1952 and 1953 series), with no effect on their breeding value and no effect on the cattle's beef quality.
Radiation
fallout more than a few miles from the detonation has been in
quantities harmless to humans, animals or crops.

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