CHRON ~-%
Seema
SOT
ri
—
3
<
ON
w
ay
ap ¢
JAN -Juve Gf
411672
The following notes cover the first half of Calendar_yea
r.61.__
gO
aQy
rn
A
j? a
Rape ee mee
&
tordqies
eaey .* MIs sdan
q
fe
within WET, a fair amount of activity continued in the Vela
Uniform program
and program 800 was brought to a 12 month readiness status,
The strength of
this
group remained about the same,
The Test Division feels that Project 800 could be able
to respond on a 9
month basis on a "crash basis".
As of the end of FY 61, only 3.4 of the 4.3 million dollars
for Vela Uniform
had been committed,
Correspondence in early 1961
indicates that the problem of
not being able to
proof test and verify good yie
ld numbers for weapons that are
being Sttusht into
the stockpile is causing some
problems in strategic planning.
DASA is sending
yk
best estimates from the AEC to
the JSTPS and describing why
these numbers are
estimates and the fact that
the AEC cannot do better.
Note that in early 61 there was correspondence or at least proposed
“SNeennreneremensnenerernettn
correspondence from the Deputy Secretary of Defense to Seaborg commenting of the
cay,
situation with nuclear weapons and emphasizing, as if some additional impetus
were needed,
the need for the AEC laboratories to continue their efforts and
perhaps step up their effcrts in weapons research.
BEST COPYAVAILABLE
Note that there were plenty of safety studies being performed by the NWSSG
and other service agencies on their system/device configuations which utilize
nuclear weapons.
78