DRAFT

9

roentgens in 58 hours; 154 Utirik residents, 17 roentgens in 78 hours; and 401 Ailuk

inhabitants, not evacuated, less than 20 roentgenstotal doses for their lifetimes.”
An Armed Forces Institute of Pathology study estimates point source doses at
"260 r." for the Rongelapese and "20 r." for the Utirik group.”
Later studies by the AEC/DBM estimate that some Rongelapese may have
received a whole-body gamma dose of 175 roentgens; that 20 percent incurred deep
lesions; 70 percent, superficial lesions; and 10 percent, no lesions; and that 55

percent lost some hair, which regrew later.*

According to later estimates, the thyroid glands of young Marshallese children
absorb approximately eleven microauries of iodine’®’ and from 700 to 1400 rads.*
2 Mar

54
RADIATION
After the task force radsafe officer measures 0.200 R/hr at 500 feet in a

morning flyover at Rongerik, the radsafe officer evacuates 28 U.S. weather personnel
from that atoll. An afternoon flight over the populated Marshalls extrapolates, 1.350
R/hr at ground level at Rongelap; 0.400 R/hr at Ailinginae, 0.001 R/hr at Wotho,
0.240 R/hr at Utirik, and 0.076 R/hr at Ailuk. The flight over the unpopulated atolls
calculates ground contamination as 0.600 R/hr at Bikar Island and Taongi Island at
0.014 R/hr. Task force officials then decide to evacuate Rongelap, Ailinginae, and
Utirik Islands. They send the destroyer USS Philip 43 nautical miles southwest of
Eneu Island, to evacuate Rongelap andAilinginae the following morning and the USS
Renshaw, 13 nautical miles north of Eneu Island, to evacuate Utirik on 4 March.

Meanwhile radsafe monitors flown to Rongelap measure 1.400 R/hr in the living
quarters of Rongelap Island.*’
3 Mar 54

RADIATION
RELOCATION

The U.S. Navy DDE Philip evacuates 64 inhabitants from Rongelap and
eighteen Rongelapese from Ailinginae and takes them to Kwajalein.”
JTF-7 radsafe monitors measure 0.160 R/hr on the ground at Utirik !sland.”
4 Mar 54

MEDICAL

RADIATION. *

RELOCATION:

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The DDE Renshaw evacuates 154 Utirik inhabitants to Kwajalein. The JTF-7

reports “comparatively low radiological exposure of this group." Medical examinations
at Kwajalein of the Utirik people reveal no sickness butfind a loss of appetite among
some small children, a condition physicians attribute to diet change.”
5 Mar 54
AGREEMENT
CONTRACTOR
MEDICAL
RADIATION

RELOCATION

Gen. Clarkson confers on relocation and medical conditions of the Marshallese
with Rear Adm. Clarke, commander, Naval Station, Kwajalein; Brig. Gen. Estes,
commander, Task Group 7.4; Dr. Thomas White, health division, Los Alamos Scientific
Laboratory (LASL); Commander L H. Alford, USS Renshaw, members of Clarke’s staff;

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and local representatives of the T.T.*’

Select target paragraph3