Attachment 2

     Draft of Public Release on Tests to be Conducted at Dugway
Proving Ground, for release October 10, 1949.
                DRAFT OF PUBLIC RELEASE ON TESTS
            TO BE CONDUCTED AT DUGWAY PROVING GROUND
                (For Release on 10 October 1949)


     The National Military Establishment has as one of its many
problems in providing for our national defense the problem of
determining what procedures and techniques should be used in
removing radioactive materials which might be placed by an energy
on many of our key facilities and industries.  Civil defense
planning groups are also concerned with this problem.
     The underwater test of the atomic bomb at Bikini showed the
world that not only fleets of ships but coastal cities could be
seriously contaminated with radioactive materials produced by an
atomic bomb detonation.  If our country is to plan and prepare
for its defense, it is necessary to study this type of attack, as
well as all other possible modes of attack which an energy might
use.
     To determine the best means of removing or decontaminating
radioactive materials, it is not necessary to detonate an atomic
bomb near a real city nor is it sufficient to do only work in a
laboratory.  Realistic decontamination should be tried out in a
variety of ways on specially constructed and contaminated
targets.
     The work planned by the Army to determine a proper defense
against this type of warfare involves the distribution of small
amounts of radioactive materials on various types of simulated
targets in the field.  The site that has been chosen for this
test work is in a remote part of the great Salt Lake Desert and
is a part of the area in Utah now under military jurisdiction.

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     The test program and the test site have been surveyed and
approved by a group composed of eminent civilian scientists, as
well as authorities of the Atomic Energy Commission, the U.S.
Weather Bureau, and other federal agencies.  Procedures have been
set up which will insure the safety of the personnel conducting
the tests and for all of the surrounding area.


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