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. ”