Giff Johnson, a free-lance writer who has traveled extensively throughout the Pacific, edits the Micronesia Bulletin published in Honolulu, Hawaii 96826. by the early 1970s a few people had begun moving back. Many Bikinians tell of Atomic Energy Commission scientists taking them to Bikini to demonstrate its safety. When the Bikinians refused wane tare Pact Ofam to eat any local foods. fearing radia- food and housing if they would move to Bikini. Dumng an Atomic Energy Commission survey of the more than 100 people living on the atoll in 1975, the ‘‘presence of low levels of plutonium” in their urine was discovered. The Commission, and later the Department of Energy, did not consider this ‘‘radiologically Significant."''? By 1977, tests showed an |i-fold increase in the people's body burdens of cesium—137. Rather than remove the population from a hazardous environment, however, the Department of Energy suggested that the Trust Territory government institute a complete feeding program. to reduce consumption of local foods, and thus exposure. The Department seemedreluctant to give up what one Lawrence Livermore Laboratory study called “possibly the best available source of data for evaluating the transfer of plutonium across the gut wall after being incorporated into biological SyStems.’’'} The situation deteriorated further and by May 1978, a high percentage of the Marshallese body levels were above the maximum permissible dose allowed in the United States. The Bikinians were evacuated again. 26 A ica SS q ee ‘s ge “ TRUST TERRITORY OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS (2.141 islands) Martesa, Carciine aad Marshall Islands Total sand poputatioa: 114,645 Inkabited siolls aud separate isimads: 110 Ocens area: @ 3,008,000 square mics Land rea: 708 square miles * . oy my bee ce ceceeewenen voted not to retum home. But the goverment was committed to the resettlement and offered Marshallese government employees free i Noetans Tete ® the Bikinians expressed doubts about the safety of their atoll and _% PONCamm 1m coms E foods in front of the islanders to convince them.!'! In 1972, however, 7} + consume conconuts. fish and other Tl tion exposure, the scientists would wt ee ~\ i ‘ : » °