NEW U.S. ATOMIC WEAPONS TO BE TESTED IN PACIFIC

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23116, 1 December 1949, Page 7

NEW U.S. ATOMIC WEAPONS TO BE TESTED IN PACIFIC

(9 a.m.) WASHINGTON, Nov. 30. The United States plans to make a new series of atomic weapon tests at Eniwetok in the Pacific. The United States Atomic Energy Commission and the Defence Department, in making the announcement, gave no indication when the tests will be held. The tests are to determine the efficiency of improved weapons developed since the last experiments of the Eniwetok proving grounds in the spring of 1948. Lieut.-General Elwood R. Quesada, of the United States Air Force, will be in command of the operations. The tests will be the third of the series conducted since the war. The first was at Bikini atoll in June and July, 1946, when one atomic bomb was exploded in the air and the second under water. Three bombs were exploded during the tests at Eniwetok in April and May, 1948. A dispatch to the New York Times today on the tests said that the secrecy at the Marshall Islands site in the 1948 tests was “something else than complete.” The dispatch added: "Confirmation was reliably obtained that Russian submarines had ‘got in close’ to the experimental area and had performed reconnaissance for as long as it had been safe to remain.”