4015 14
The Honorable Paul G. Rogers
House of Representatives
Washington,
Dear Mr.
D.
C.
20515
Rogers:
On behalf of
the Secretary of Defense,
I am pleased
to respond to your letter of April 21, 1978, concerning
radiological safety aspects of DoD's role in the cleanup
In the six years since incepproject for Enewetak Atoll.
tion of the project, no facet of planning and execution
has received more intense and continuing emphasis than
radiological safety measures
the cleanup.
to protect those carrying out
.
-
,
Before responding to your specific questions, let me
offer to brief you and your staff in person on the cleanup
and related health physics considerations.
I believe such
a briefing would provide you a deeper understanding of the
extraordinary radiological safety precautions that have
been in effect from the outset, and would give you the
opportunity to satisfy yourselves, through detailed ques-—
tioning, of specific matters that might not have been touched
upon in your questions or in the answers provided herein.
As background for addressing the specific issues, it
might be
useful briefly to review the histery of
this operation.
In 1947 the people of Enewetak Atoll were relocated to Ujelang
Atoll so the United States could use Enewetak for nuclear
weapons tests.
Forty-three nuclear detonations took place
at Enewetak between 1948 and 1958.
In 1972 Ambassador Williams announced that the United
States was prepared to clean up, rehabilitate, and return
the Atoll to its people.
At this time the Atomic Energy
Commission (now the Department of Energy {DoE)) and DoD
were tasked to do the preliminary surveys end planning.
DoD was tasked to perform the cleanup itself, DoE to provide
radiological support and certification, and the Department
©f Interior (DoI) to accomplish rehabilitation and resettlement.
”