Memo to Graves, Et Al, Subject: Ucrl's Proposal on Taongi (U)

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ik had decided to cazy cm tiis feasibtiity study in mder: first,hmr do you gain amess to the at-toll.5~ to stage an operation; secun&Ly, what sort of fq3ring do you. do there and with what sort of instrumentation,and thfrd, the quest Ve aocegted from the of remto diagnostics and beg5ming that the best concept would be me Ci.ci.~z s%tes wou.Idbe selected in tie northern end of the lagoon in th,? mcsststr&e@ locations to prodc.ce a better anchorage, The first wo-Ltdbe stepped In to Zaprove the amhorage. The Task Force and the Ra;rg suppl$ed us with Ffgdrographfc Office survey work-sheets and pictures. Sc:*ippe has looked into the permanence of the ssnd islands, if the reef fs bmsshed, and the exchange of water in the lagoon to detxm%ne the int701ves sending txo vessels oA to the Forward Area to make sum smndings, so WCtalked to the Task Force shout imluding five Sctipps people 3-n t&e secxmd on9 of thesetwo trips3 but the necessary money was vlot made amilSble, Gaelexand I put the question to the AECand apparently +Uhefeeling . wa.~ that we should have been worfdrg tith the AISCall tie tjme, So the mm can you get back in there after,the first shot and secondly, the

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sfibflity of openingrrpthe ohannelzxldgzbing zwxss to the lagoon0 We contactedAdnirslMde at Sm Diegofor adtiseon type of ship questionof bo&ing a channel_3&o the lagoon and he threw his handsuq at this, We calledon CDR Fe, who Is ccm-mdingofficerof the Undervater &ml..ltionTern,andhe was qtiteopt%niaticabout being abletc open I the channelfor ICU access, At the suggestionof Fane and Xsaacs,we requestedof JTF that one officerand %m enli~&edmen go along Gith the Thayer expsdttionto Taongifor the purposeof inspectfinglandingbeachesthat I thinkhe did not, . No 11don%, exceptthathe had apoligizedfor not hati_ng Jemy saidwhen 3:talkedto hti, thathe thoughtthathe infc~rraed of whatwe were doing here, aud pointedout to hti t'nathe had Bu-5Jim Reeveshad sentone,he made a photostatof the cey he got d bit piquedatbetig leftout,,1 suggestedthathe get aholdof Starb3rd

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Is he gotngto see Starbird? res, Well as far 85 the cuncepl;of qerationis conce_rmtdjwe feel that the shotsaat we wouldput up there,whtihwouldbe four cr fivebarge k preferredmethodof operationwouldbe to bu?%ldstathistime,however,we feel that for the sh6tswe have xovz a shotbargeor the APLbarge intopositionunlesshe coulduse ATFfs .~iisel$_ke,and in the absenceof the strongwesterlyswellswhichtieydo Ho firmdesignworkhas been doneon mountingthe diagnosticson a ship. Peopleare justgettingstartedon thatnow0 So I am not prepared .';osay that this is a reasonablewilyto do it, andwe mightend up with :*atioils&ore. Xy feelingis thatwe probablywXU notbe ableto build my major stationsashme andhave T~QI@ ~~~IDVEX!as far as the Ccnnmis~ion

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basscion the idea tiat this 5x1 a ap~wAH.yless expensiveway to do ft as %RDTACKs8 ctmemed ti put in know you can do the instzwnentation, can get a ship relwsedfortiis shi,,would be less expensivethan kt;lebudding of a major tilpha aEd a fast photo stetfon. it, We thirk that this is ciif'ficult,it may' its one of the Wmgs that perthat if you developthe atoll stations,X.etscwll them, wcxlldnot change

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think thrrt this If3 om of the things that perhaps It3 the next wef$t or two we can pinpofnt sazehat more extxSy, and $ think that; this is me of the reasons that Joe wanted to co-m up today. It can be done by using Taongl. based on not Ming 3ikinf? use 3aclnl fe rpnall shota. Theremeybe 8CB'ii8fntcmaduat;e fieldsthatcouldgo at W&i nicelyto be firedat I)iMnt at almost my time. The conblnal disadvmt~ of proteotlngEniw&& andworpylng

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know of wosuld bo sas tiWdahg repeaterstations. Sam pwplcz have better ideas aboutthat than I do in8 conammd, wh;tch smald be t&e maijl reason fop going in get the Ming in statbns !ni$@t be Canbined to end up l%ke

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iXZMIN!Ghad we had Tao@ and yourplan for usingit. It Thattsright. Thatmuldbe apertoftitimport, You VLsuziLizeYARD!iTACKto be the sizeof REDWING. Thereagaintie majoroonsiderationwouldbe weather* In tf.ves were on RongerSfr and Rongelq becausewe didn'tuant to lay any stuffdam overtiereknowingeat theywouldcomeback scmeday, I don% buy that arguem&, I don% think tiatstrue, 1 thinkthatwhenexrer t;i.ewf3ather-peoplemake the statmmt in answx3rto the questionwill there t&re shouldbe ncne and to gc aheadand fire. If therewerenatives IKEL, a.8 I we it, you wouldham to have an APL up thereto &M.nate of course couldnot be moore$butwotidhavetc be stxming all the

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to get the A”Z out of tierebeforethe firstShoL up the shotbarge on an LSD you wouldhave 4~ leaveit there to nto-tbr the APL. fbe firstshot, and TklE!tis the APL and 1 am no% convincedwe need it, 3;"w6 are not goingto It is nat clearto me thatwe xouJ_dneed It, ovcglIf we didbuiLdmajar ThsB*s hmdto do, Joe, MU, it oouldbe,

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You bat-e got t9 start fromyear warehome your maintenanceof heavy equipment, them areafew thixqgsbbodeotents aadarese halls, arzdaPX mdtM.ugs like dawn aa the aiz3 of them. Do you have m feelings oa the time scale on Woo&md, Wouters,Kellerand Emu Hamen are looking at it, wrv. I have not to cut dcwa 00 the size of the taba to Gricr. Aad Rex is tr~rMsg up this mather. We had hoped to have the resuIt3at the xorniagaruvey. Thenwe xmt to put the vhole tMng In a PacmP. We hupe to get this done by the first of February. When duea Rsx expectto have the weatherdone,Gibby? He is supposedto have it in bx t31e15th of Janrtary. What & you mau by that c_uestf;ion? L man the informtioa we need, that Rex needs. Ia he compfliugft or is he Well, he has got all the data that ex2sts.

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cmneJ.y~ing the available data to try and dete?_-mimwhat the flowat various pmbahly reactivatemuy of the othermather stationduringthe testoperations b42tit may be euoughto e'tn;lluate.thefiringfrequency.I thinkit is gplte appreciablyloverthanit fs at Bik%ui. I thinktw will cltiericathatit if3about%I%?Sam?. If it is, thenthat is It shcazldbe better, end up with a be easy to dczmcxatratethatlt b just aagood,butitwouldnotbeofauy irra’t bad. Even lxnder the re8trictions that we lrqpaed on IllDKDS. Better

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Do you have a figurefor that? I don'tknowwhatitls exactly,but it la probablysomthingllke five. I& me ask #ia question, Walt. ffyoucar~prove, or back up, a five day firing intervalat Taongi,can you prove the thing to be ecorzomical. Develoymnt and everything-- do you think we can? Yea. Eecauaeif you fire large shots at Eniwetokand don't fire any large shots at Bikini.becauaeof the metriction which was mentionedher in asmmption two. Under ammnption three,Bilsiniis completelyinactivebecauseof from oo3ti three in here. Under co@bitionthree,I tbizikthe advzmw ie,quite obvious. Under condition thi'ee,wh& that amountsto is aimplyshuttingdown Bikinientirelyand then its clear that firing the whole seriesat Euiwetokie almost impoosible.Under conditiontwo, where you use S%kin'ifor small ehota,here again the advantage of ueilagTaongi is prettyeasy to demomtrate. Supposeyou take eight megaton and Taongl,80 there is a distinctLveadvantagethere. ff you were still ueiug BiklnSfor mme large shots,then the advantageie reallyquite preferableon the basis of'time versus the cost of development.Then It was on the basis of this kind af argumentthat I suggestedthat the approachbe dfvidedinto these categories,so we could Just 8@e &at each orieof them lookedlike individually to Bee what the cost8 are along side theadvantages. In savingsof tim and

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v&&not, andbearing inmidas machas We can imagine of the operatIonal aspect of this thing, too. I think that the tive day freqmncy under 8om perhaps, but ve will ,juatamume that the vtatberis all right,and not worry about that, mmeone elcreis doing that. Butrm?th@rei8afcwtyhour haul far an LSD free!the assemblybuildingon Enlvetok. We can cut that Bikini. $utItnrnkwt cutlihetime perhapsfrom fortyhours down tothw tht trades are prettybrisk,and this might be worth the forty hours ha&l up there, you would be going up wind all the vay, what do we know about that? Well, we don't know much about it; but atajrbeDan, in the3.rweatherstudywill be able to make mme eatimtee on the state of the tea. The unknown subject is probablyfeedinga barge throughthe channel. If it baa to be timd with high all+ water, then therenust be 8oIgeaveragedelay resultingfrom that. I don’t know what it $8. Maybe there is, maybe tbere isn't,but it'r;probably understandfairlywell ior the areas we have used. We can make prettygood estimtee, What the situationwill be at Taoagi,we am &Jt going t0 have to guess. Under the conditionsproposedfor testing,it.8 prettycleas that you do not requirehigh precisionin the moorings. This Save8you SO~thiag, I &on% -mowhow much it fa. If you are tryingto moor in a craterwhSch Is breacbsdthroughto the open aea, the et&e of the water in there is probably not quite 80 pleamnt aa it is in the shelteredFox-Georgeregion. Despite down succeesfklmooringsthat will bold the barge modtratelywell. On

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that the excbmge rate of the waterle socbtbatyou have tolet the place iit for a while beforeyou can get in. That'sfrom a radiologicalviewpoint. There maybeaday or two lostinthere. Hovmuchtimewewill wedfor dry mining, I don’t know. By changingthe firingeyetems,you can probably d.ty run the ayeterns~rucceesf’ully at Eniwetok or Btkinf, wherever you db the assemblyand bon't have to dry run your equipmenton the site. 1 would guess up all dry running,but they would probablynot In&at on three or four days Well, they have to aboardship. Yea, I think they could. I don't kzmw what devices you are talking about, leastsm gofrrgtobaveto havepreseura runs on pressurizedboostersand primariesand thin@ but the chancesare good they will. So, f5veday8is like that. Msybe not, do you have to wait on the averageof a coupleof days to get the sea calm Througbthe months of April, %?Q'andJune, the averagedaya eachnor@ when comidered more than juut 42% mall swell for five ws, but it iacreme8 tbmugb the other montba to eomthlag like 17 or 18 &aJtsa mth, later on 5x3 Plover&er.Now, how k.mb troublethis would cause ie dependmt on

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where you go with the first ehot and how much of Is Icaacspreparedto hazardany guess about the the zwf la breached. exchange rate, if he is not able to make the mrvey? Does he have aqy feelingsabout t&t? Well,~lIcarre~aboutthatist~t-- oh, onemore thing. I hadbetter go into this part of it, too. Irr connection with tbia businessof what happenswhen you breach the reef, in view of the factthatyouwantto etay out to the edge of that crater before you etep over it and block.theedge of it inside with a second shot. We explore$in a very preliminaryway with the RichmondUnivererityField Station,the feasibilityof a model etudy. We asked them these questions: Do they feelthatssy irzformattfm couldbe obtainedfrommodel study? Couldyoumake amodelaccurate enough to gire you any facts or inform&ion? ofp hand, they wouldn'tanswerthe queetione. They said that they would not guaranteeanything. They recognize that this verticalslixingthing Pa a hard thing to dig up without knowinganythingaboutthe conch. But when we told them that there~88 a tmriassurveybeing contemplated,they asked us to be able to put one m at work on uakinga feasibilitystudy of the femlbility of a model, Which is tbz right way to approachit, believerite,and we agreed that this was all right. The Laboratoryis willingto pay for this one guy. fsaacebad requeatedthat after the marbe survey,thw get a photo surveyof !bmgi up to date and when we startedtalkingto the peopleat the RichmondField Station,they said they would like to have thicssurveymade before &mace goes out so that if there are any pointsof inform&ion that fsaacacould pick up for ~&XI, that they could discoverfrom the photo survey,they coulddo itatthattime. So, we asked the Task Force to get euch a survey, and t&yhave etartedthat. Whetherthey can get lt'tous in color or not

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tirzingtoappearin the rrhot~~es they are in which ve asked for eecondhand takenufih 605 overlapalong the have acmm the reef. So, it's a sketchy thing to go on withoutactually SANDERS:I have a hard time visualisinga test vithautan -Jimtripsome&we. It seem8 to me that you are going to tie up a lot of peoplefor a long time. FELT: Well, ve talkedyesterdayand f told those presentwhat I understoodof your rreed3.We discussedthe whole thing frozaa somewhatmore germ-al polut of view, tryingto consiC;.erwhat needs would ariee from the requirements placedon other task groupsby 7.1 to supporttest operationsIn. area. One of the major subjectsthat ve diecussedwas the questIonof a3.rstripoWe felt that the chmcen were quite good that tkepe vi.11 be strongpressureari8ingout of 7.4 to put in an air&rip there. Their justificationwould be m emergmcy Zacdingstrip. This we intendto explore vith 7.4 and find out Just how stronglythey feel about lt. !Fhey have felt quite strongly about it before and they even vent to the extent pots on the EnQma~ airstrip,and vc put a barricadeup over there at Enyu, and so forth. Our huach is t&t 7.4 vould push prettyhard to put In some kind of emrgeucy airstripup there. That was the fltpstthln& The secondtu we talkedabout vas Eolass & Xarm?rtamethodsof operation. While they could successfullyget along up -there withoutan airstrip,I neverthelessfelt that if you got dovn into the H&B workinglevel and asked

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w&r they should hmre one in order to providethe supportthat they would be oblige8to provMe to you. An awful lotofrraterlalandequiparentgeta etinrttledback srrd forth, and I I&II& t&at ii thy were asked how they wouldgoaboutsupportinga testoperationupthere, theywouldarrive at the conclusionthatana3..r&rlpis extremlyvalusble. I feelthatthey v#u.ldbe able to cut dm!rntheir irmestmentln fNH materm. and stillbe abXe toguarantee the support capabilltybybelngable ta shuttlepart8 Idisagree. It dependsupon the nwiber of stations;%u build ashore. end REDWINGwhen it got pretty Aqortant to mke a medicalevacuaBikini to Enivetok. atistripup there. What ve weAm wsying,or doing>was looktifrgat the way opmations have bean com3mted, and tryingto decide fmm mr own point of viclp~&t?zr it was reasonableto assumethat if the place was developed, if pre5sm would be sufficientthat an airstripwould be put in anyway, whE:therit w&e asked for by ym, or ua or anybodyelse. Well, that might be, but we am% not askingfor it. Yefi,but despitethe fact that you didn'task for It for UC.XLoperatic-, t&irewould be enmgb presfm-efor it anyway. So, it would be a fair absrmpticm fox*pIaxmingpurposes,at leaatinone categoryofthe planning, that an alPstripwould be put In, aad we were exploringthe Smplicatioaaof what the generalidea for developlasthe place would be, on the basis that there vm an a3m3trip. We also felt that if you put an aimtrip Sn, you ctlso hope

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you shonla f%Immge to pick 8 firing location to smpropb ral asaner. We also exploredthe implications of ptztting w 0hwla a0 thi8, that we had to do this, aa tba the value of a0agi I othzrquef3tiEo1IBorassumptluz2s.You can developa methodof operatingup fbtrewhichis basedon yourgettingthe ship+nd your pmving out the the useArZnem3of the place on those two thiw. So we decidedthat we shmld considerwhatwouldbe necessaryif you did not havethe shipand we had to pat the necemxty dastnmentationa&ore. HavUg tossedit around, w decidedin ~DY event therewotid 3xm? to be somethingashoreup there to tohaveH&I? supportpeoplevorkingup there quite a ways in advanceof trPa feelingwas that having to tiavehigh freqmzncysadio c&cuita, you'11 probably to put in teletype. Chances are, you'd batter put this in in sucha it after the first ehot, althou& thie ia not absolutely leadsyou to believethatyoufre going to have 8omdhi~I& 70, not quite 80 elaborate,but somethingthat is a commniThe thingia thattb3.sis not somethingrequiredby 7.1, to need it. 80, we’ve got somethingtherealready,Then therefe a littlemore bulld%?xgrequired. So you've got an airstripand one

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That is ri&t. Yaahavethe aimtrlp andyou hdpethatyou&be able tokeepthe -p,butycudonot counton it, You ham to planthe cperaticmso thatyou am not usingit for &at%le aircr&orsonethiftg is justirWdonthatbssf-s,then3.tshouldbe possibfsto gctthe 421% in the ama. Then,you have got to have at least 01% klW&inerg. You have got to have fuel serolce for it, you …