Amchitka Nuclear Test Testimony
And Project Plowshare
The Congressional Record for this date is 1" thick!
In 1969, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) proposed an underground nuclear test 4000 feet below the surface of Amchitka Island, Alaska (at the western end of the Aleutian Islands). Michael, as Chairman of the Scientific Divison of CNI (the St. Louis Committee for Nuclear Information), was invited to speak in Alaska at the end of September, 1969.
He testified before the Alaska Legislative Council and spoke to an Elks Club.
In the end, despite protests, the test was carried out. Two weeks later, he testified before the United States Senate Appropriations Committee ("Public Works for Water, Pollution Control, and Power Development and Atomic Energy Commission Appropriations" for the 91st Congress) on October 13, 1969. This concerned the Amchitka test as well as, more broadly, the AEC's Project Plowshare, an effort to find peaceful uses for nuclear explosives.
Sept 25, 1969 Anchorage Daily Times
(Michael quoted on page A2, column 6.)
October 13, 1969 U.S. Senate Testimony
10 pages from the Congressional Record