the Pacific proving grounds and was ready to resume atmospheric testing should the Russians violate the test ban treaty.” Although atmospheric testing stopped in 1963, doses received from atmospheric testing did not. reassessments of That year a series of hearings before the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy explored the hazards of iodine 131. As a result of the hearings the Cammission and “the Public Health Service expanded morbidity and mortality studies of off-site Nevada commmities. The data collected indicated that there were somewhat more leukemia deaths than would normally be expected, but results were not conclusive. Data from the Marshall Islanders exposed to the Bravo fallout indicated radiation-related thyroid problems were a distinct possibility, especially among children exposed to fallout. In 1965 the Public Health Service began a major thyroid study among school children in selected counties in Utah, Arizona, and Nevada. thyroid abnormalities were found in ninety-five Although students, final results again seemed inconclusive.>+ The Cammission initiated a search for test sites to supplement the Nevada Test Site in 1966. Coanmission engineers soon located sites in central Nevada and on Amchitka Island suitable for tests which could not be held near Las Vegas. The Cammission fired a nonnuclear Vela detec- tion shot on Amchitka in 1967 and conducted an intermediate yield test in central Nevada a year later. The Commission ultimately fired two nuclear shots, Milrow and Cannikin on Amchitka, but by 1969 the use of Amchitka had aroused environmental groups concerned that the shots would irreparably damage local ecology or set off seismic disturbances. To preserve the Amchitka environment the Commission established a number of Along with several state groups, the Commissicn 25 > environmental programs.