providing local air transportation at Bikini became solely that of TR 7.3
(Reference 9, p.
134).
The Bikini boat pool had a sharply increased wor k-
load in order to provide transportation between the shipboard living quarters and work sites.
All ships would evacuate the Bikini Lagoon before all scheduled
The movement of fleet units out of Bikini Lagoon during evacuation m
hots.
neu-
vers for postponed attempts did have some advantage because it helpe
flush out the contaminated lagoon waters from the ships'
with open ocean water
seawater syptems
(Reference 16, p. L-3), preventing a large bui Ldup
of radioactive contaminants within the systems.
ROMEO
ROMEO, the second CASTLE test, was the first barge-mounted, wat
Surface detonation.
Because of concern that the experiments being
e=-
pared at Eneman for shot KOON might suffer blast damage from ROMEO,
its
scheduled site was changed from south of Iroij
which
to the BRAVO crater,
was a greater distance from Eneman.
Preshot Preparation
ROMEO was ready to fire on 13 March, and the sequence of sea and air
searches, weather analyses, fallout predictions, briefings, and adv SOry
messages to the Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet
Unacceptable weather delayed the detonation for 2 weeks.
(CINCPAC)
b
an.
During th S pe-
riod, the task force maintained an 18-hour standby capability to co duct
the test.
The weather-caused delays had two consequences for subsequent t sts.
First, the method of conducting air searches for the protection of
ran-
Sient shipping was changed when it was determined the search plan w s not
flexible enough to cope with the large geographic shifts in the lon “range
fallout forecast that could occur between successive tentative shot days.
The new procedures included specification of an expanded hazard zon
Green, see Figure 16)
to control shipping, and the use of three or
250
(Area
ore