From 1945 to 1962, the U.S. Government, through the Manhattan Engineer District (MED) and its successor agency, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), conducted 235 tests of nuclear devices at sites in the United States and in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In all, an estimated 220,000 Department of Defense (DOD)* participants, both military and civilian, were present at the tests. Project TRINITY, the war-time effort to test-fire a nuclear explosive device, was the first atmospheric nuclear weapons test.
* The MED, which was part of the Army Corps of Engineers, administered the U.S. nuclear testing program until the AEC came into existence in 1946. Before DOD was established in 1947, the Army Corps of Engineers was under the War Department.
In 1977, 15 years after the last above-ground nuclear weapons test, the Centers for Disease Control** noted a possible leukemia cluster among a small group of soldiers present at Shot SMOKY, a test of Operation PLUMBBOB, the series of atmospheric nuclear weapons tests conducted in 1957. Since that initial report by the Centers for Disease Control, the Veterans Administration has received a number of claims for medical benefits from former military personnel who believe their health may have been affected by their participation in the weapons testing program.
** The Centers for Disease Control are part of the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services (formerly the U.S. Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare).
In late 1977, DOD began a study to provide data to both the Centers for Disease Control and the Veterans Administration on potential exposures to ionizing radiation among the military and civilian participants in atmospheric nuclear weapons testing. DOD organized an effort to:
o Identify DOD personnel who had taken part in the atmospheric nuclear weapons tests
o Determine the extent of the participants' exposure to ionizing radiation
o Provide public disclosure of information concerning participation by military personnel in Project TRINITY.
METHODS AND SOURCES USED TO PREPARE THIS VOLUME
This report on Project TRINITY is based on historical and technical documents associated with the detonation of the first nuclear device on 16 July 1945. The Department of Defense compiled information for this volume from documents that record the scientific activities during Project TRINITY. These records, most of which were developed by participants in TRINITY, are kept in several document repositories throughout the United States.