HELFRICH AND RAY 



REGIONAL MAP 



CMaPhiC SCAI.E IN •«Aotm:ai. wilCS 



AIRLINE DISTANCES MAP 



NO SCALE 



Fig. 1 Regional and airline distances maps of the Pacific and tlie Marshall Islands showing 

 location of Enewetak Atoll. 



Kwajalein. It consisted of two tests, one an airdrop and 

 the other an underwater detonation. The radiation and 

 other effects of both of these tests — code-named Abie and 

 Baker — were largely confined to Bikini Atoll, with such 

 fallout as left the Bikini area being deposited in areas of 

 open ocean. The same could be said of the early develop- 

 ment tests, which began at Enewetak in 1947. The selec- 

 tion of these atolls had been strongly influenced by their 

 remoteness and by the predictability of wind conditions. 



The 1954 operation, code-named Castle, was planned 

 contemplating use of both atolls. Detonation of Bravo, the 



first test of Castle, drastically altered that plan. The explo- 

 sive power (yield) of Bravo was more than twice that 

 which had been predicted, and local winds carried the 

 debris, or local fallout, directly across Bikini Atoll, contami- 

 nating much of the land area and rendering the control 

 area and many of the experimental sites unusable for the 

 remainder of the Castle operation (Hines, 1962). Some 

 testing continued at Bikini, but Enewetak, after Bravo, 

 took on even greater importance in the atmospheric 

 nuclear testing program. During the period which ended on 

 October 31, 1958, Enewetak was the site of 43 nuclear 



