Made during the run-up to the Operation Sandstone nuclear tests, RADIOLOGICAL SAFETY ON OPERATION SANDSTONE was intended to debunk certain misperceptions that the military believed were being put forward in the U.S.A. about the dangers of radiation and fallout. The film begins with footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the study of the blasts made by the United States Atomic Energy Commission. The narration puts forward the idea that nuclear contamination and exposure can be minimized by properly trained personnel.
Operation Sandstone was a series of nuclear weapon tests in 1948. It was the third series of American tests, following Trinity in 1945 and Crossroads in 1946, and preceding Ranger. Like the Crossroads tests, the Sandstone tests were carried out at the Pacific Proving Grounds, although at Enewetak Atoll rather than Bikini Atoll. They differed from Crossroads in that they were conducted by the Atomic Energy Commission, with the armed forces having only a supporting role. The purpose of the Sandstone tests was also different: they were primarily tests of new bomb designs rather than of the effects of nuclear weapons. Three tests were carried out in April and May 1948 by Joint Task Force 7, with a work force of 10,366 personnel, of whom 9,890 were military.
The successful testing of the new cores in the Operation Sandstone tests rendered every component of the old weapons obsolete. Even before the third test had been carried out, production of the old cores was halted, and all effort concentrated on the new Mark 4 nuclear bomb, which would become the first mass-produced nuclear weapon. More efficient use of fissionable material as a result of Operation Sandstone would increase the U.S. nuclear stockpile from 56 bombs in June 1948 to 169 in June 1949.
Sandstone established an organization to provide radiological safety expertise and services tocommanders of the separate components of the task force, who were responsible for personnel safetywithin their commands. Personnel were trained in radiological safety. Standards governing permissible exposure were established. The standards were 0.1 roentgen (R) per 24-hour period and a maximumexposure of 3 R for specifically approved missions. Film badges were issued to persons likely to beexposed to radiation, as well as a representative group of the task force. An extensive weatherforecasting group was established to predict wind directions and areas of potential fallout. Personnel were evacuated from danger areas before each detonation. Reentry to radioactive areas was restricted topersonnel required to retrieve important data, and their radiation exposures were monitored.
According to the Department of Defense, most of the inhabited islands and support ships in the area did not receive appreciable fallout from the three SANDSTONE shots. The reconstructed dose from fallout for most persons who were resident on Enewetak or Kwajalein, or were shipboard for the entire operation, is less than 1.0 rem. Kwajalein Atoll received the principal amount of fallout among these on May 3, two days after Shot YOKE.The only personnel who received more than the fallout on the residence islands were those workingwhere exposures were expected to occur, such as handling cloud samples, recovering instruments fromthe forward islands, and monitoring areas of high radiation.The highest DoD dose for the Army was 6.1 rem, accrued by a individual supporting scientific projects;for the Navy the highest dose was 4.7 rem recorded for a radiation monitor with the Joint RadiologicalSafety Group. Only eight personnel received doses in excess of the limit of 3 rem. In fact, the total dose recorded on film badges for badged JTF 7 personnel at SANDSTONE averaged less than 0.2 rem, and approximately 65 percent of these had total readings of zero rem.
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