8. Editorial Note
From February 18 to May 15, the United States conducted Operation Teapot, a nuclear test series at Yucca Flat and Frenchman Flat on the Nevada Test Site in the continental United States. During the test period 14 nuclear shots and 1 non-nuclear shot were detonated. Several thousand scientific, military (army, air force, navy, marines), and civilian contract personnel participated in the organization, planning, and execution of the test series. Military exercises undertaken during and following the shots took place under the name Desert Rock 6.
Numerous weapons test reports, scientific studies on radiation and fallout, and other documents relating to the test series are located in the Defense Nuclear Agency Technical Library in Alexandria, Virginia.
Later controversy over the radiation effects of nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site in the 1950s and 1960s on the health of humans and animals in the area is documented in Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, 96th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 96–129, and Joint Hearings Before the House the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce and the Senate Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources and the Committee on the Judiciary, 96th Congress, 1st session, Serial Nos. 96–41 and 96–42. The conclusions of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations are summarized in “The Forgotten Guinea Pigs”: A Report on Health Effects of Low-Level Radiation Sustained as a Result of the Nuclear Weapons Testing Program Conducted by the United States Government, August 1980 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1980).