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Nuclear tests in the South Pacific, code-named Operation Sandstone, paved the
way for mass production of weapons that previously had to be assembled by hand.
During 1947, scientists at Los Alamos focused on designing atomic devices
smaller and more efficient than those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Conducted on Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands, Operation Sandstone proved
the success of the new designs. By late 1948, the United States had 50 nuclear
bombs.
The U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Energy's predecessor
agency completed cleanup of Eniwetok Atoll in 1977. Contaminated soil and
debris was removed from the atoll and encapsulated with concrete in an atomic
test crated on a "sacrifice" island.
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