McMahon's request that the Camission put together a team to prepare another expansion study. billion to $7 billion. Cost estimates for the program ranged fram $2 After submitting a report to Senator McMahon, the Commission referred the expansion program to the National Security council. While the Comission debated whether to build new production ' facilities, it conducted a second continental test series, called Buster-Jangle. Already continental tests had -became complex. In addition to testing weapon designs, the Cammission used the blasts to test weapon effects for the Department of Defense and the Federal Civil Defense Administration. The Department of Defense sent a 5,000 man regimental combat team and 3,450 observers to the proving grounds to train the soldiers for atomic warfare. The Commission was responsible for the radiological safety of the soldiers as well as for the techni- cians who studied the effects of the blasts. So hastily had some of the military experiments been devised that the Ccmmission's test manager advised the Commission that it should assume complete control of all future test series. 1 Despite his admonition, however, the military retained control of its experiments and eventually assumed responsibility for the radiological safety measures taken to protect the soldiers who trained for’atomic warfare. | Fission weapon advances fueled the expansion debate within both the Joint Committee and the Commission. Meeting on January 16, 1952, the National Security Council approved a second major expansion of the Camission's production facilities. The program, scheculed for campie- tion in 1957, cost an estimated $4.9 billion and added an additicnal gaseous diffusion plant to the Oak Ridge camplex and two new plants to