Operation Crossroads

102

The Evening Star (July 16, 1946)

Excessive deaths of Bikini animals denied by Blandy

ABOARD USS MT. MCKINLEY (AP) – The atomic bomb which burst over Bikini Lagoon July 1 has taken the lives so far of only 15.3 percent of the animals exposed to its blast and radioactivity, Vice Adm. William H. P. Blandy, atom test commander, said today.

Ten percent of the animals, he said, were killed outright. He added that other deaths from radiation were expected to occur during the next three months and commented that, mortality so far was at the “expected rate.”

His report said 2,982 of the 3,519 animals used in the test were still alive.

Adm. Blandy’s statement was in sharp contrast with that of an officer who reported at Kwajalein Monday that the animals were “dying like flies.” The officer indicated there soon would be no animals left to take to the United States for further study.

Juda, king of the nation of Bikini, may see the second atomic bomb shake the island where he and his people once lived. He received an invitation today after he had been paid a courtesy visit by Adm. Blandy and other American notables, at his present abode, Rongerik Island. No one had any doubt that he would accept.

103

The Pittsburgh Press (July 16, 1946)

80 animals die of atom radiation

Others killed outright by Bikini blast

OFF BIKINI (UP) – Vice Adm. W. H. P. Blandy disclosed today that some 80 test animals exposed aboard Navy target ships during the Able Day atom bomb test have died of radiation and injuries since the burst July 1.

Added to those killed outright on Able Day, these subsequent deaths bring the total fatalities among the animals to 537.

A total of 3,519 goats, pigs, rats, mice and guinea pigs were exposed to the bomb’s radiation to help science develop methods of treating human beings in event of a future atomic war.

Adm. Blandy said the latest report from the animal laboratory ship Burleson showed 2,982 still were living though suffering variously from the Able Day ordeal.

Thus, 84 percent of the exposed animals were still alive and 15.3 percent dead. About 10 percent of the total were killed by the blast and heat radiation on Able Day although an astonishing number survived the immediate effects.

The radiation – depending on the intensity of the dose received – produces a lingering sickness, so more animals can be expected to die in succeeding weeks.

The admiral flatly denied a report that test animals were “dying like flies.”

104

The Evening Star (July 17, 1946)

Puzzled natives of Bikini get U.S. thanks for lending island

By W. H. Shippen Jr., Star staff correspondent

RONGERIK (By radio) – The humble folk of Bikini yesterday received official thanks from President Truman for the sacrifice of their homes and hid their sorrow with inbred dignity and courtesy.

From the silent semicircle seated beneath waving palms at the edge of the beach, grave, sometimes tearful, faces were lifted to the great men who had arrived out of the sky to bring them greetings and word of their future.

The president’s spokesman was Sen. Hatch (D-New Mexico). Mothers hushed babes at breast, and King Juda sat like a graven image. None could understand the senator’s words, but all knew they were of great import. The head of the president’s Evaluation Commission for the atomic bomb tests spoke simply and cut his sentences short to wait for the interpreter. It was a message of gratitude, briefly delivered.

They had begun to hope, from reports that the first bomb left every one of the familiar coconut palms standing on Bikini, that the second test might prove as harmless to their homeland and they could return where they had lived for at least 12 generations. But no such assurance could be given, for after the second test, there will be still another at an undetermined date and their island will be required.

We all saw here today that Uncle Sam had done well by his wards. Materially speaking this beautiful atoll has a cleaner beach, more productive land, better housing, more sanitary conditions, just as many fish and taller coconut palms than Bikini. Yet it was apparent in the faces of the Bikinians that, as everyone knows, there’s no place like home.

We newsmen who came ashore at Kwajalein while the press ship Appalachian returned to Honolulu to pick up writers for the second test, were flown here yesterday in a Navy PBY as guests of Cmdre. Ben H. Wyatt of Louisville, Kentucky, commander of the islands. The commodore has deep sympathy for the islanders, and is making a study of their life and needs.

When our amphibian landed in the blue-green lagoon two grinning islanders arrived alongside in a yellow life raft of the type carried by Navy aircraft. A great reception committee greeted us on the beach. Everybody shook hands and exclaimed good morning again and again.

Conch shell sounded

Soon Vice Adm. W. H. P. Blandy’s seaplane was sighted and the town crier sounded assembly on a conch shell. At King Juda’s bidding every one of the 167 islanders who could walk, toddle or hobble to the beach formed a single file with the king in the lead.

Senators, admirals, generals and scientists in Adm. Blandy’s party, including Dr. Edward V. Condon, head of the Bureau of Standards, went along the line shaking hands.

It was Adm. Blandy’s first visit to the transplanted Bikinians on Rongerik.

The men were first in line, clad mostly in Navy dungarees. Women came next, wrapped in calico Mother Hubbards, relics of Boston Missionary days, but there were exceptions in the feminine contingent – comely girls with striking carriages and dresses copied from American magazines. One girl had cut and stitched together a little white jacket and skirt smart enough to do her credit at a Washington tea party. Friends said she had copied every line from a magazine.

There were odd incongruities. A loudspeaker was half concealed in the fronds of a tall palm, and from it blared suddenly a popular U.S. radio program.

Plane aids stork

Their church was thatched, walled and matted with tightly woven fronds and had an altar delicately carved from waste Navy crates. Hewn ironwood beams of the church were brought here for them from Bikini, along with outriggers and dugouts.

After yesterday’s ceremonies, our party wanted to swim from one of the most inviting beaches in this area, but since we brought only trunks and no tops, it was thought best to take outrigger canoes to the beach across the lagoon, so deeply had the missionaries ingrained self-consciousness into islanders. Their modesty would have been offended by men in swim trunks, it was said.

At the opening of the ceremony, Cmdre. Wyatt told the people they had set an example to the world by voluntarily giving up the only homes they ever knew to “aid in an experiment from which we hope much good will flow to mankind throughout the world.” The commodore introduced Adm. Blandy as the man responsible for the great tests, “the commander of thousands of men and hundreds of great ships who has come to see how you are faring.” The admiral responded with best wishes and expressed his thanks for cooperation.

After that gifts were exchanged – candy, salted nuts in tins and chocolates for the women and children; tobacco for the men and a fine pipe for King Juda. Also, there was a big globe of the world presented by the commodore to King Juda for use in the school. Rongerik was pointed cut to Juda and then the globe was turned to the United States.

“Do the children understand this?” King Juda was asked through an interpreter.

“Not yet,” he replied.

Globe becomes toy

A spectator remarked that the Bikinians probably understood the atomic bomb even less. Some islanders had asked if the war was over. When told it was, they asked then, why drop more bombs.

Another gift to King Juda was a blown-up set of photos of the atomic bomb towering over Bikini. King Juda was more interested in the surviving coconut palms on the sky line than the spectacular upheaval. “Good,” he said of pictures, with his eye on one showing palms.

Just before we pulled away, the islanders gathered about the bright new globe and gave it a whirl. They seemed to get a genuine kick out of the vari-colored toy, probably neither knowing or caring very much that it represented a pretty thoroughly battered old eight ball.

105

The Waterbury Democrat (July 18, 1946)

Firing clock to detonate Test Baker

No human can stop blast in final 15 seconds of test

ABOARD USS MT. MCKINLEY, at Bikini, July 17 (UP) – A dramatic system for exploding the atomic bomb – in which no human can stop the blast in the final 15 seconds – was disclosed today.

A firing clock will perform the task in Test Baker in the July 25 underwater detonation. Ticking alive 30 seconds before the hour of 8:35 a.m., the timepiece can be stopped up to 8:34.45 a.m. After that nothing-- barring a mechanical failure – can stop the shattering blast beneath 75 ships and 12 small landing craft.

Vice Adm. W. H. P. Blandy, commander of Operation Crossroads, revealed the method of firing the bomb, the revised blast time, and the final approved figures of the number of target ships.

The man who starts the clock which starts the bomb will be a slender, youngish and scholarly Los Alamos scientist – Dr. Marshall Holloway.

Approximately two hours before detonation time on Baker Day, Rear Adm. W. S. Parsons will lead a party of nine men, including Holloway or one of his assistants, aboard the special barge from which the bomb will be suspended at an estimated 25 to 30 feet below the surface.

Around them, in close will be the battleships Arkansas and Nagato, the carrier Saratoga, the submarine Pilotfish, the destroyer Mayrant and the transport Fallon. Nearby will be the battleship Nevada, the cruiser Salt Lake City, and a concrete floating drydock. Farther out will be the battleships Pennsylvania and New York and the cruisers Pensacola and Prinz Eugen.

Adm. Parson’s party will throw switches aboard the barge and activate the clocking system, which functions something like a time lock in a bank vault.

Then they will get out, fast.

To board separate ships

A speed boat will race them to safety beyond the lagoon’s rim – Parsons going aboard this flagship, Holloway clambering aboard the electronics ship, the USS Cumberland Sound.

Holloway alone holds the key to one room filled with radio transmitters which will broadcast the detonation beam, and to another room where power installations for the transmitter are set up.

After various buttons are pressed Holloway at “how” hour minus 30 seconds will put the lever that starts the clock. Adm. Blandy will have 15 seconds to change his mind if he wants to radio the “stop – negative, negative” cry.

106

The Evening Star (July 18, 1946)

Editorial: What Juda might say

Perhaps there is something that the transplanted natives of Bikini can teach us. They are on Rongerik now, and a party of distinguished Americans has just told them how deeply the president and people of the United States appreciate the sacrifice they have made in offering up on the altar of science the little island that had been their home for at least twelve generations. They have heard, too, how the atomic bomb exploded over their lagoon, and they have seen pictures of the gigantic radioactive cloud mushrooming up and up. But they have commented on all this with the greatest of circumspection – politely, smilingly, in complete friendliness, yet without committing themselves to any definite endorsement of the wonders we have wrought.

Maybe the Bikinians have nothing to tell us, but then again maybe they have. Maybe, if we invited King Juda, their leader, to visit us he might say certain unsaid things that are in his heart – things he may be withholding now only because he is a Christian gentleman who has no wish to deflate us or question the ultimate meaning and direction of our genius. Here, going through our crowded and nervous cities, he might discourse on the human spirit, on happiness, on the good society, and he might challenge us to point to anything better in our land than he and his people enjoy in the far-off Pacific. Exemplary conduct, no crime, individual dignity, freedom, simplicity, gentleness of manner, plentiful food, love, song, laughter, work, play – these are all theirs under a splendid sky on a dot of land shaded by waving palm trees and surrounded by a deep-blue sea.

The “conveniences” of our civilization, the gadgets, the autos, the trains, the planes, the endless hustle and bustle, are not theirs. King Juda might say to us that we can keep these things entirely to ourselves. He might say that the Bikinian way is the better way, that the Bikinian wisdom is the greater wisdom, that the Bikinian mind is a mind at peace with itself and that therefore it knows, more than we know, the secret of enjoying life. He and his people, he might say, have sacrificed an inanimate island on the altar of science, and then he might add that our sacrifice may be much more serious – that we may be in danger of offering up not unfeeling soil but ourselves and our happiness, and that in truth, with the atomic bomb and our host of other wonders, with our supremely learned technological society, with our feverish getting and spending, with our era of ever-increasing complexity, we may not be nearly so well off as he, nor half so wise for all our knowing. Juda might be quite wrong if he said this, but still he would have a point worth mentioning.

107

The Frontier (July 18, 1946)

Endless arguments rage…
World awaits second test of atomic bomb

By Walter A. Shead, WNU correspondent

bikini

ABOARD USS APPALACHIAN, OPERATION CROSSROADS – Second or Baker test of the atomic bomb in Bikini Lagoon, now tentatively set for July 25, will be like dynamiting fish in a pond.

Lacking will be the glamour of the Army Air Force and precision bombing as the whole thing will be a Navy show. The bomb will be submerged some 75 feet beneath the surface in about 30 fathoms of water, 180 feet, and detonated in the midst of the target fleet, which is being regrouped to meet new conditions of the test.

This second test also will lack the drama of the bomb burst and the atomic cloud, which is characteristic of atomic bombs exploded in air. What is likely to happen is that the intense heat will generate steam in the water and the terrific force will expend a part of its energy in a waterspout with a cloud of steam and vapor shooting into the air. Intent of this test is to measure force of atomic energy upon the hull structure of naval ships spaced at various distances from the center of the explosion.

Subs to submerge

There will not be the visible damage which was inflicted wholly upon the topsides or superstructures as in the first blast. Since there is to be no ship placed directly above the point of blast, the prediction is being made freely that no capital ships will be sunk, although lighter craft may be capsized. Another feature of the second blast is the placing of submerged submarines in the target fleet, and it will be interesting to note the effect of the bomb force upon the steel hulls of these vessels beneath the water.

Naval scientists predict that force of the underwater blast will create waves of sufficient height, possibly 10 or more feet which will sweep over low-lying Bikini Island, although this was also forecast in the first blast and did not materialize.

Meantime, endless arguments proceed as to the degree of damage to the ships, the location of the bomb burst, whether the drop from the plane was a “near miss,” probable loss of life had the ships been manned with full complement, and comparative efficiency of this first Bikini bomb as compared to the bombs at Alamogordo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Precision bombing

When it is considered that this bomb was dropped from a height of something like six miles and hit within a 1,000-yard circle, this reporter would consider that pretty good precision bombing.

Adm. T. A. Solberg of the Bureau of Ships, however, declared that insofar as he could judge, every ship damaged by the bomb, with the exception of the Independence, could be put into fighting shape within two or three months.

For the Independence, battered and ripped apart by explosions of her own torpedoes, her ammunition and aviation gasoline and burning for almost two days, it would take about nine months to put her in shape.

Also all ships damaged, with the single exception of the Independence, towed away and anchored far out in the lagoon, likely could have pulled away under their own steam, had they been manned with crews.

Study effects

In the meantime, Bikini Lagoon has been turned into a vast laboratory of science, chief interest being the effect of the bomb and its subsequent radiological rays upon the live animals placed aboard the ships at various locations likely to be occupied by the men aboard. Amazingly, only about 10 percent of the animals were killed by the force of the blast. Some are burned and sick and others may become ill from effects of radioactivity. As a matter of fact, a few already have been destroyed by medical doctors, who are studying this phase of atomic energy in an effort to determine how this radioactivity can be used in medicine in treatment of disease.

Persons or animals which receive these powerful rays into their systems are variously affected and the boarding teams upon these ships are preceded by a trained man carrying a “Geiger counter,” a small box-like apparatus which registers radioactivity by a ticking noise.

Estimate losses

A fleet such as those which composed the target fleet would normally carry approximately 30,000 men. It is reasonable to assume then that approximately 10 percent, or 3,000 men, would have been killed by the atomic bomb blast and that more would have been injured by radioactivity. Whether much of the damage to ships caused by subsequent fires aboard could have been averted had crews been aboard is a moot question. Some ships captains declare that damage would have been much less had the ship firefighting equipment been brought into play, and this seems reasonable in that most of the loss on the Independence was due to fire and explosion and not the bomb blast.

There is no attempt however on the part of naval authorities to minimize the terrible power of this atomic bomb. No other single bomb ever did the damage to a fleet that this one did… five ships sunk, one completely out of commission and approximately 10 others out of action for two months or longer, and small to negligible damage done to 10 others.

However, another atomic bomb likely would not find 73 ships to make up a helpless ghost fleet grouped conveniently like sitting ducks and whether use of the atomic bomb as an offensive weapon of naval warfare upon ships at sea is militarily sound still is a debated question and one which the naval evaluation board will study during the next few weeks or months.

It must be remembered that what ever is said about this second bomb test before the actual test is in the realm of conjecture, and much of the conjecture made prior to the first test did not materialize.

Arkansas may be second target ship

Target ship, or vessel nearest center of the blast, for the second atomic bomb test may be the overage battleship Arkansas, it has been indicated by reliable sources although no definite announcement has been made by Adm. W. H. P. Blandy, commander of Operation Crossroads and the joint task force.

The carrier Saratoga was first slated to be second target ship.

An interesting sidelight on fate of the Saratoga, which suffered only negligible damage in the first test, is that her commander, Capt. Donald MacMahon, knowing that she was slated for the second target ship made a wager with a friend in Washington, before bringing the ship to Bikini, that he would take her back to the East Coast under her own power. It looks now that he has better than a 50-50 chance of winning his bet.

108

The Pittsburgh Press (July 18, 1946)

Second bomb test rehearsal starts

Photo flash trial set for tomorrow

BIKINI ATOLL (UP) – A full-dress rehearsal for the Baker Day subsurface atom bomb blast will be climaxed tomorrow with the explosion of a photo finish bomb among the target ships.

Task force ships today began leaving Bikini Lagoon for “safe” positions as they will on the eve of Baker Day – set for July 25. Nine vessels, including the flagship USS Mt. McKinley, will remain in the lagoon overnight and a handful of personnel will remain aboard target ships and the four islands of the atoll to make last-minute instrument adjustments. The last of the personnel will be removed three hours before the time set for the bomb to explode.

A massive floating concrete drydock will substitute for a special weapon ship from which the atom bomb will be suspended on Baker Day. The purpose of the flash bomb tomorrow will be to test instruments and the timing of the operation.

Meanwhile Lt. Cmdr. J. P. Simpson asserted the first atomic bomb, detonated from the air last July 1, was up to par in all respects. He heads the 10-man diving crew which since Able Day has been photographing the wrecks of five ships sunk in Bikini Lagoon.

“Down there on the lagoon floor,” he said, “you really grasp the power of that bomb. It’s unbelievable. The (transport) Gilliam is a shipfitter’s nightmare.”

109

Wiener Kurier (July 19, 1946)

Beim gestrigen Probeabwurf wurden zwei Bomben verwendet

Gute Wetteraussichten für den 25. Juli

San Franzisko (INS.) - Wie aus einem Pressefunkspruch von dem Flaggschiff Vizeadmiral Blandys hervorgeht, gelangte bei dem gestrigen Probeabwurf die Versuchsbombe vorzeitig zur Explosion.

Admiral Blandy erklärte jedoch später, daß die bei dem Versuch vorzeitig explodierte Bombe gar nicht für den Probeabwurf verwendet worden sei, sondern daß im geheimen eine zweite, ungeladene Bombe abgeworfen wurde. Diese zweite Bombe habe nur eine leichte Sprengladung gehabt und sei zu der genau festgesetzten Zeit explodiert. Über die Tatsache, warum den anwesenden Pressevertretern über die zweite Bombe keine Andeutungen gemacht wurden, gab Admiral Blandy keine Auskunft.

Ferngelenkte Flugzeuge innerhalb von 5 Sekunden über der Explosionsstelle

Wie die bei der Versuchsflotte im Pazifik ein gesetzte Wetterflotte der amerikanischen Luftflotte voraussagt, werden bei dem Atombombenversuch am 25, Juli gute Wetterbedingungen herrschen.

Bei diesem Versuch sollen ferngelenkte Flugzeuge eingesetzt werden, die mit Fernsehapparaten ausgerüstet sind und die mitten durch die radioaktive Wolke gesteuert werden sollen, um festzustellen, was in der Explosionswolke vorgeht. Damit die Absicht verwirklicht werden kann, müssen die Flugzeuge innerhalb fünf Sekunden über der Explosionsstelle sein.

110

The Evening Star (July 19, 1946)

Flash bomb fires prematurely aboard atom ship at Bikini

ABOARD USS MOUNT MCKINLEY (AP) – A large magnesium flash bomb used to synchronize cameras went off 51 minutes prematurely today during a rehearsal for the underwater atomic bomb test, but Vice Adm. W. H. P. Blandy quickly gave assurances the same thing could not happen with the real atomic explosive.

The flash startled the Crossroads Task Force, but caused no damage or casualties.

Adm. Blandy said the exact cause of the premature detonation was not yet determined, but that the 100-pound flash bomb was set off entirely differently than the atomic bomb, and the public should have no fear of danger to personnel participating in next Wednesday’s blast.

“The atomic bomb positively will not fire prematurely,” he declared.

The magnesium bomb was mounted on a ship far removed from the vessel which set it off. “The exact cause of this premature flash is not known at present,” Adm. Blandy said, “but it has no significance with respect to the actual atomic bomb since it was operated on the camera actuating circuit. This circuit does not have the elaborate safeguards installed in the bomb-firing circuit.”

Adm. Blandy disclosed that a dummy, nonexplosive depth charge, which represented the atomic bomb, was planted underneath the guinea pig fleet for practice purposes today and emitted a radio sound precisely at the intended time.

The admiral declared the accidental firing of the flare “simply cannot happen to the atomic bomb.” Precautions are so elaborate, he said, “not even lightning” could set it off before all hands are miles away in safety.

111

Underwater blast to settle question of tidal wave

ABOARD THE USS APPALACHIAN (AP) – One specter of the atomic bomb, whether it can flood a coastal city when exploded under water in a harbor, will be settled Thursday at Bikini.

This devastation of a city by water was one of the first scientific predictions laid before President Roosevelt in 1939 when he decided to back the atomic bomb.

There still is uncertainty. The very higher wave prediction, by Adm. Blandy, is 100 feet. But this means from trough to crest and a wave that looms only 50 feet high as it starts shoreward from the center of the burst.

No prediction on width

Adm. Blandy’s figure at three miles from this center is only 10 feet high.

No one here makes a prediction on how wide this 10-foot wave will be. If it should be a quarter of a mile wide, from front to back that would mean disaster in low areas.

On the bright side of this Frankenstein monster is the fact that the nuclear fission bomb wave is concentric. It starts in only a small circle. That may mean not enough volume of water splashing over docks and streets to do much damage.

Water column presents problem

More unpredictable, and more fearful, is the possible effect of the expected water column. By official prediction, the explosion will push a tremendous quantity of water to one side and right down to the bottom of the lagoon.

The water then will rush together from all sides to fill this hole. The smack of closing the hole will, by official predictions, send skyward a vast volume of water. Extreme predictions are two miles.

It appears certain that the underwater nuclear fission bomb will move more water farther and faster than water has ever moved before.

Another possibility is the conversion of some water into hydrogen and oxygen, due to heat, and the later detonation of this explosive combination of gases.

112

The Pittsburgh Press (July 19, 1946)

Bikini blast to hit weakest part of ships

Underwater A-bomb may crush hulls
By S. Burton Heath, Scripps-Howard staff writer

ABOARD USS APPALACHIAN, en route to Bikini – The blast of the second atom bomb in the Bikini experiment will be directed against the most vulnerable part of warships.

Above the water line a battlewagon is almost invulnerable. Super-tough steel, 12 to 14 inches thick, protects that part of the ship. It was against such armor that the fury of first atom bomb was directed. It twisted and tore the armor plate, but still it failed to penetrate to the vitals of most of the ships.

But the second bomb will be exploded under water, about 18 to 20 feet deep. Its tremendous force will be directed at the thin plate on the bottoms of the ships.

Arkansas may be sunk

Experts believe the Arkansas, the Nagato, the carrier Saratoga and several lesser craft may be sunk in Bikini Lagoon when the second bomb explodes.

The Arkansas, expected to be the nearest battlewagon the second bomb, has three bottoms, one below the other, all of steel an inch or less thick.

The Saratoga is less heavily armored above board against shells and shallow torpedoes, but her compartments are superior to that of the battleships. So she may prove sturdier against the underwater bomb than the apparently stronger battleships.

Pressure to be big

When the bomb explodes – the test is set for July 25 – it will apply, very suddenly, a piledriver pressure against the thin-shelled underwater sections of the Arkansas, Nagato, Saratoga, the cruiser Pensacola and other smaller ships.

If that pressure is great enough, experts expect it will crumple not only the outer shell below the armor but also the inner bulkheads and bottoms, permitting water to pour into the protective compartments and through the equally thin bottom of the “armored box” into the shell containing the machinery, magazines, and living and working quarters.

All in readiness for second test

OFF BIKINI ATOLL (UP) – All preparations have been completed for the underwater explosion of the atomic bomb in Bikini Lagoon July 25, Vice Adm. W. H. P. Blandy, Operation Crossroads commander, announced today.

Adm. Blandy made his announcement following a dress rehearsal for next Thursday’s test. It was marred by the premature explosion of a photo bomb and by dismal weather that forced most of the participating planes to return to their bases.

113

Memorial to honor Bikini blast victims

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, California (UP) – Memorial services for goats that died in the Bikini atom bomb test will be held Sunday by the San Fernando Valley Goat Association.

Taps will be blown and flags lowered to half-staff at the ceremony.

“Sacrifice of domestic animals which have achieved such good for humanity as the goat” does not further the interests of science, Frank Ecker, president of the group, said.

114

The Evening Star (July 20, 1946)

Cancer institute ready to begin breeding tests on Bikini mice

The National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, was prepared today to proceed with mating tests to determine any effect the atom bomb at Bikini might have had on the 113 mice that arrived from the target ships yesterday. The mice finished the round-trip to the South Pacific in apparent good health.

The animals, subjected to various doses of the atom bomb blast and gamma radiation in the July 1 explosion, will be bred to determine the effects on their fertility as well as any resultant disease.

At the time of the bomb test, the mice were about 10 weeks old, which science says measures up to a 20-year human stage. Institute scientists will watch for leukemia, cancer and other diseases, as well as the ability of the mice to have young.

Science has a theory that irradiation in dangerous doses affects reproduction and Dr. Walter E. Heston, principal geneticist at the National Cancer Institute, who is aiding in the experiments, believes that this research will teach valuable lessons. The mice tests are being supervised by Dr. Egon Lorenz, principal biophysicist.

The mice are divided into four groups: (1) Vulnerable to breast and lung cancer; (2) breast cancer alone; (3) lung cancer only, and (4) resistance to tumors. One-third of the group received a large immediate exposure to gamma radiation; another third got a moderate blast and the remainder were but lightly exposed. In all possible combinations the various groups will be cross-bred and mice that did not go to Bikini will also play a part in the experiments.