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Department of Energy
Pacific Area Support Office
PO. Box 29939
Honolulu, Hawaii 96820.
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JUN 41973 ©
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W. J. Stanley, Director
Pacific Area Support Office
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TRIP REPORT =~ MAJURO, KILI, JALUIT
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On May 12, 1979, I traveled to Majuro to assist the BNL Medical
and Whole Body Counting teams and to represent DOE in meet ings
with Marshall Islands Government officials.
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On May 14, Roger Ray and I met with President Amata Kabua and the
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Marshalls people felt they were not getting all the facts from the
DATE
Ministers of State.
U.S,
The President seemed disturbed that the
Government as to health problems due to radiation.
He cited
*
"57 thyroid problems” in Likiep and made vague references to an
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official U.S. document which showed high levels of radiation in
Bikar and Bokar in the Northern Marshalls. He also said that the
birds there were dying and had very little body weight.
The Bikar-Bokar news was rather shocking to us and Roger pointed —
out that the birds were so thick on Bikar that the helicopters had
to fly higher than usual to prevent them from getting caught in the
blades.
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General assurances were given that there were no indica-
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tions of high levels at Bikar or Likiep and that more complete
The President also was upset in that he somehow felt that having us
meeting the Board of Tobolar (the copra processing plant) and
discussing sample taking, could damage the reputation of the plant
because the buyers of their oil and copra cake might be scared off
Roger assured
by the thought of Bikini copra being processed there.
‘him and the Cabinet. that our only interest was to understand the |
process so it could be closely duplicated in the laboratory, and that
we wanted to be completely above board in that regard.
(A later
conversation between the President and myself indicated that_the
emotional aspect of Bikini copra and the potential impact on their
market if it was somehow associated with the Tobolar plant, blotted
out this explanation.)
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