Giff Johnson, a free-lance writer who has traveled extensively “loa throughout the Pacific, edits the Micronesia Bulletin published in Honolulu, Hawaii 96826. bythe early 1970s a few people had begun moving back. Many Bikinians tell of Atomic Energy Commission scientists taking them to Btkint to demonstrate its safety. When the Bikinians refused to eat any local foods, fearing radiation exposure. the scientists would consume conconuts, fish and other oy Nan F VOR C aD I ADS o -- ~~. eh ee ee le when in the United States. The Bikintans Were evacuated again. 26 é J opulation: 24,248 rea: 69.84 square miles — *, Mariana, Caroline and Marshall fslands Total istand population: 114,645 Inhabited atolls and separate islands: 110 Ocean arca: Z 3,000,000 square miles « , Enevetak . Sy. « * Bikini * * we . .? «Kua jeleta * “ ° we Se, * mneee ene eseeneene 7} Q a fw = e E. PACIFIC ISLANDS (2.141 islands) a “ z > aS) wets EE a wRD. 2aBeye | oe eM my mem yee 8 TT ee fy N 5 Land area: 700 squaré€ miles covered. The Commission, and later the Department of Energy. did not maximum permissible dose allowed & Fox. ~<S >, government was committed to the resettlement and offered Marshallese government employees free food and housing if they would move to Bikini. During an Atomic Energy Commission surveyof the more than 100 peop: living on the atoll in 1975, the “presence of low levels of plutonium” in their urine was dis- consider this ‘“‘radiologically significant.’''? By 1977, tests showed an Ll-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 seemed reluctant to give up what one Lawrence Livermore Laboratory study called “possibly the best available source of data for evaluating the transfer of plutenium across the gut wall after being incorporated into biological systems.°'3) The situation deterorated further and by May 1978, a high percentage of the Marshallese body levels were above the “3 a . ao NN 1 See cee J~ TRUST TERRITORY OF THE > ez = foods in front of the islanders to voted not to retum home. But the 'ACIFIC OCEAN 5 Bree DAE convince them." In 1972, however, the Bikinians expressed doubts about the safety of their atoll and o