DRAFT 38 1 May 79 ADMINISTRATION The RMI inaugurates a parliamentary constitutional government. 15 May 79 RADIATION RELOCATION In response to a request by the DOI for a definitive statement by the DOE on the possibility of returning Bikinians to Eneu Island, Ruth Clusen, the DOE assistant secretary for environment, states that a return to Eneu Island cannot take place for 20 to 25 years when applying the radiation criteria of 250 mrem/yr per person used for the Enewetakese. 17 May 79 ADMINISTRATION CONTRACTOR RADIATION Roger Ray and Harry Brown meet with President Amata Kabua and members of the cabinet of the government of the Marshall Islands. They discuss the DOE’s interest in gaining cooperation from the Tobolar copra plant to replicate the Tobolar process in a laboratory at LLL. (Tobolar is a Marshallese word that means "sprouting coconut.") They also confer about the safety of Eneu as a residential island, radiation levels on Bikar and Bokar, thyroid abnormalities on Likiep, and the northern Marshall Islands survey.*? 21 May 79 RADIATION RELOCATION The DO!informsthe T.T. that Eneu Island must be placed off limits as a place of residence for the Bikini people for at least another twenty to twenty-five years. The DOI stresses that the U.S. government must use the. same radiation exposure criteria forthe peaple: ofBikini. as that used: for Enewetak*® : 4 Jun 79 Oe ; ag ‘ RADIATION 2) we OPLINT OL, Jaron ge + Ce TT FEE 4 ee re Togas, VE TNE s¥ovegroce FO, ee A : “ OS 3 . oR oo _ ~The MarshallNslands Nijitela (legislature) adopts.” resolution. requesting that the U.S. government and the UN conduct aradiological survey of the waters and land areas in the Marshall Islands, north of 8° north latitude, including all of Namu Atoll, to determine radioactivity in the area and to carry out medical examinations to identify physical disorders which maybe attributable to nuclear explosions on Bikini and Enewetak Atolls. Aug 79 . ’ RADIATION The DOE, the DOI, and the EPA and their legal counsels agree on the necessity of determining a U.S. position with respect to the applicability of U.S. exposure guidance in the Marshall Islands, particularly at Enewetak, and to determine the extent to which the U.S. has the authority and responsibility to enforce this guidance. The EPA believes that federal guides to radiation protection apply to the Marshall Islands people who wantto return to Enewetak, but that, in carrying outits programs, the DOIcan allow the possibility of occasional individual doses in excess of 0.5 rem/yr if it has a carefully considered reason for doing so.*° SoouuLD