ain Fx {ie
SIESR
QL
RET
APPENDIX 'B"
U. S. ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Washington 25, D,
No.
1163
Tel.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ST 3-8000
Ext.
C,
(Sunday, September 15, 1957)
307
STATEMENT BY THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
AND THE ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION
_
In the absence of a safeguarded disarmament agreement,
preparations are under way by the Atomic Energy Commission and
the Department of Defense for a series of nuclear tests to begin
in April, 1958, at the Eniwetok Proving Ground in the Pacific.
The United States repeatedly has stated its willingness to suspend nuclear tests as part of a disarmament agreement.
Until
such an agreement is attained, continued development of nuclear
‘Weapons is essential to the defense of the United States and of
the Free World.
The forthcoming series will advance the development of
weapons for defense against aggression whether air-borne, missilieborne or otherwise mounted.
Information on the effects of weapons
will be obtained for military and civilian defense use.
Test
operations will be governed by the declaration made in the Bermuda
Communigue on March 24,
1957, of the intention of the United States
"to conduct nuclear tests only in such manner as will keep world
radiation from rising to more than a small fraction of tne levels
thas might be hazardous.”
An important objective of the tests will be the further
development of nuciear weapons with greatly reduced radioactive
fallout so that radiation hazard may be restricted to the military
target.
This principle was first preved in the Pacific test
series of 1956,
A United Nations agency will be invited to designate an
international group to observe one of the detonations involving
limited fallout and studies are under way to determine the instrumentation which will facilitate their observation without making
disclosures which would compromise restricted weapon information
in violation of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954.
Observation by
news media representatives will be provided for in a manner to be
announced later.
As in the past series, a control area surrounding the
proving grounds will be established to safeguard air and sea
traffic and will be defined well in advance of the commencement
of operations,
-~ 9 ee
iaOe
sot
ketch at
Appendix
tl BU