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UNITED STATES
ATOMIC ENERGY COXMISSION
Washington, D.C.
INFORMATION FOR THE PRESS
NO. 70 December 1, 1947
Tel, EX, 1616, Brs, 307,308
Box No, /2% [NN3- 32 6-93-0087)
FOLDER Y71-6 (4-21-47).
Sandstone
Vol- |
FOR SIMULTANEOUS RELEASE WITH
USAEC RELEASE NO, 69, at 7:°OPM,
EST, MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 194
INFORMATION FOR THE PRESS PREPARED IN COLLAECRATION WITH THE
DEPARTMENT OF STATE AND THE NATIONAL MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT
TO SUPPLEMENT THE STATEMENT OF THE UNITED STATES ATOMIC ENERGY
COMMISSION CN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF PACIFIC EXPERIMENTAL INSTALLATIONS
409585
RB
The purpose of the installations now under construction in the Pacific
is to provide a suitable area for the continning conduct of a wide ranges of field
work to establish by experimentation the indicated results of laboratory studies
esrried out in facilities of the Atomic Energy Commission, The scientifie and
technical ccerations of the proving ground will crovide new fundamental data
and a broader understanding of the phenomena of nuclear fission which will
facilitate advances in ceaceful as well as in militery aprlications of atomic
energy.
All test operations will be under laboratory control conditions, with
full security restrictions as required by the Atomic Energy Act of 1946,
The area of the installations will be closed as a safeguarding measure
as provided for in the United Nations Trusteeship Agreement for the former
Japanese mandated islands, and the Security Council of the United Nations will
be duly notified to this effect.
Eniwotok Atoll wes selected as the site for the proving grounds after
the careful consideration of all available Pacific Islands, Bikini is not suitable
as the site since it lecks sufficient land surface for the instrumentation
necessary to the scientific observations which mist be made,
Of other possible
sites, Eniwetok has the fewest inhabitants to be cared for, epprowimately 145, and
what is very important from a radiological standpoint, it is isolated and there
are hundreds of miles of open seas in the direction in which winds might carry
radioactive particles,
Construction will be supported through the Hawaiian Islands, Johnston
Island and Kwajelein Island,
The permanent transfer elsewhere of the island people now living on
Aomon and Biijiri Islands in Eniwetck Atoll will be necessary. They are not now
living in their original ancestral homes but in temporary structures provided for
them on the two foregoing islands to which they were moved by United States forces
during the war in the Pacific, after they hed ceattered throughout the Atoll to
avoid being pressed into labor service by the Jepunese and for pretection against
military operations, The sites for the new homes of the local inhabitants will
_ be selected by them. The inhabitants concerned will be rsimbursed for lands
utilized and will be given every assistance and care in their move to, and
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