aft
UNCLASSIFIED
Department of Defense, will involve weapons generally smaller
in yield than those tested during the 1954 test series."
No test will be held if there is any possibility that
areas outside the danger area would be affected.
The timing of all test shots will be governed by the
judgment of weather experts assisted by new devices and
techniques.
The precautions
that we will take will ensure that
"fall-out" will occur only in the danger area.
Among the steps that will be taken are the following:
1. Improved technicues will provide for more reliable
weather predictions. The number of weather stations in
the Pacific will be increased, aircraft will fly at high
altitude to collect weather data and new type weather
ballons and rocxets will ascend to greater altitudes to
gather weather data. Recently developed computers have
mechanized most of the computational problem of predicting
fall-out" patterns, permitting forecasts to be made more
rapidly than heretofore.
@. On the day of each detonation, four separate aerial
flights will be initiated to accomplish a quick radiological survey of the islands and surrounding seas.
3. There will be U.S. Air Weather Service and U.S.
Public Health Service personnel present on 16 islands for
monitoring purposes.
They will be equipped with adequate
radiological monitoring devices and two-way radios.
These
islands are as follows: Rongerik, Tarawa, Wotho, Utirik,
Majuro, Kusaie, Ujelang, Midway, Kwajalein, Iwo Jima, Guam,
Jonmnson, Truk, Wake, Ponape, and Rongelap.
4. Radioactive clouds caused by the tests will be
tracked by airplanes so that the effect of unexpected wind
changes can be anticipated,
In patagravh 2 (a) of their petition, the Marshallese
request that "all human beings and their valuable possessions
be transported to safe distance first, before such explosions
occur.”
I would reiterate that the warning area does not
contain any inhabited islands and it will not be necessary to
evacuate any of the Marshallese people from their present homes.
Nevertheless, as
in all good planning, complete plans have been
prepared for the evacuation of the inhabitants should such a
measure be needed.
~ 8 -
Enclosure IV