INTRODUCTION

On March 1, 1954, at Bikini Atoll, BRAVO, the first of six nuclear weapons
tests in the Castle series, was detonated.

The BRAVO device caused substantial

surface contamination on inhabited atolls within a 2,000 square mile area.

The

contaminated region was cigar shaped and included Ailinginae, Rongelap,
Rongerik, and Utirik Atolls which lay east of ground zero at distances from 60
to 300 miles.

The fallout on Rongelap, initially visible at H+6 hours, had

thinned out to the extent that it was no longer seen at H+10 hours (G162).

On March 3, 1954, the 64 residents of Rongelap Atoll and 18 residents of
Sifo Island, Ailinginae Atoll, were evacuated.
157 Utirik Atoll residents also took place.

On March 3 and 4, evacuation of

During the first few weeks and at

least once every year from 1957 to the present, a Brookhaven National Laboratory
medical team, organized by the Department of Defense and by the Atomic Energy
Commission and its successor organizations, has provided medical examinations to
monitor the health of the persons initially affected by the fallout from the nuclear testing program, plus a comparison population.

Reports of their findings

are given in Cr56, Co58, Co59, Co60, Co62, Co63, Co65, Co67, Co70, Co75, and
Co80.
The Utirikese and Rongelapese returned to their home atolls in June 1954
and in June 1957 respectively.

The earlier repatriation of Utirik Atoll was

based on the low level of external radiation exposure measured after the initial
3 month observation period (March to June 1954).

The Utirik population was not

examined by a Brookhaven medical team until March, 1957, when 144 people received comprehensive physical examinations.

Following the 1957, medical survey,

two men, removed from Utirik for medical reasons, were whole body counted at
Argonne National Laboratory and provided urine samples for radiochemical anal-

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