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Leo M. Krulitz
October 30, 1979
Page Seven

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As I have said, the two principal considerations which
are relevant to a decision about Enjebi, are the likely
health effects from radiation exposure, if the island
is to be resettled, and the likely adverse impact of denying
resettlement.
The dose estimates were done and set forth in the AEC Task
Group Report and in S5.6.1 of the EIS. The risk estimate,
that is the estimated number of health effects associated
with each resettlement alternative, was calculated and
set forth in Table 5-12, Vol. I of the EIS. The same
subject is treated in the text at S5.6.2. A comparison
of the health effects for all five cases is contained
in Table 5-13 at p. 5-51.
The health effects predicted in 1975 for the resettlement
of Enjebi are not substantially different from those which
have been calculated on the basis of the most recent data.
The dose estimates which we find in the EIS, at s5.6.l
(which are in turn drawn from the AEC Task Group Report
and the Enewetak Radiological Survey) , are somewhat higher
than current predictions, I suspect, because of the
See Enewetak
unrealistic dietary model which.was used.
(Dr.
Radiological Survey, NVO-140, Vol. I, pp. 492-498.
appear
that
W.L. Robison observed that “it would . . .
dose calculations based upon [the NVO-140 dietary model] may
overestimate the total dose via the food chains. . . .“
Id. p. 497.) In any case, we were faced then with health
=ects
on the order of less than a single case of cancer
or a single genetic defect as a result of resettlement of
Enjebi, a prospect essentially the same as we now have
b~fore us.
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I have not discussed the concern with exposure from the
That situation
transuranics via the inhalation pathway.
has been improved, insofar as more rigorous permissible
limitations have been imposed than those included in
the impact statement.
I am not sure of this, however,
but it seems to me that the soil removal may have reduced
the concentrations of fission products as well.
While it seems clear to me that the proposal to resettle
Enjebi was thoroughly studied in 1975 in the course of
the environmental impact statement, there is one serious flaw

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