--
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t
BIKINL from Al,
Meanwhile, the people on Bikini did aot stop eating the
* Rbeir return, and e number of the people went back.
,
The Rongelapese who went back began developing ra-
@oconuts and other foods grown on their island, despite
‘warnings that they were dangerocs and despite the evaila-
bility of noncontaminated food provided by the United
Sites from elsewhere.
;
- Oscar de Brum, datrict administrator ef the Marshall
Uslands, according to news accounts explained to a congressiona! subcommittee in May that the “eoconuts are
treasured by the people.” Be said that a medical team arFiving on the island in April had been offered radioactive
coconuts as a gesture of friendship.
The doctors found that there had been drastic increases
of cesium in the Bikini residents’ bodies since last year.
The Department of the Interior, which oversees the trust
territory government, saw the results and decreed that the
Bikinians must be moved off by the end of this month.
Early indications did not look promising for a move to
- Eneu, where the safety of the food supply was also ander
question. After consulting with the people op Bikini and
the other Bikinians remaining on Kili, the High Commis-
§ diation-connecied medical problems like thyroid tumors
5 and leubernia. And according to Mr. Balos. those afflicted
_ Secluded not only people who bad bees on the ato!) dusing
the 1954 Blast but also some who Ard been eway at the
* a a eee
_ ~ To him, that meant that there was something remaindng on the atol! that was poisoning the people.
Even as be campaigned for bétter medica) treatment
_ for the Rongelap people— they were being visited by doctors once a year and the ones with tumors sentoff for sur-
gtry—Mr. Balos suspected that Bikini probably was not
really safe, either.
.
By 1974, be remembers, be was warning that the Bukini
people living on Bikini should not be there and the ones
still living os Kili should not move to Bikini His nephew,
Henchi, recalls that many ef those on Kili beeded the adyice and declined to be resetiled on Bikini, asking money
. @ioner of Micronesia, Adrian P, Winkel, decided te remove
compensation for their loss of homes istead.
The legislator demanded a pew radiological survey, us: |
dng the latest instruments, on Rikini, Rongelap and other
atollsems.
and islands .where .fallout
might pose continuing
.
deen
anh
The US. Congress that year established 2 $3 million
of Enerev. which includes the successors
"Ruel gs
€
‘
Atomic
Commission, found that the amounts of eontami-
" ants being absorbed by Bikinians from the water and
from plants grown in still-radioactive soll world over s
eee
guidelines.
“vs
News accounts from Washington earlier this year quot- oa]
t of
official explaining to @ congress:
j Energy Comuzission bad miscalculated so badly in 1965. “There were Bo
eocopats to test and no foodstaff growing” at that time, be
waid, and use of the best techniques available then did not
* weve! the
.
.
-
‘Last year, in response (to the latest findings, Bikini resl-
q
ents were told to drink only rainwater collected ir cis. {
, terns and not to eat the foods growing on the island. in
- gtead, food would be shipped to them Officials then set oct 4
. 60 find another island bome for them.
The most likely resettlement spot appeared to be Enen,
" @pother island im the Bikini atol) tha! was thooght to have’
“received a lesser dove of fallout. But testing was required,
~@06 a verdict on Eneo was not to be available entil next
the people from Bikini back to Kili on a temporary basis.
- The overall radiological survey of Bikini, Rongelap and
the nortbern islands of the Marshalls, the one that Ataji
Balos and some other Marshallese have been demanding
Soch an overall survey was notdove then—Mr. Balos
“was branded a troublemaker, be says. But in 1975, when
‘Bikini residents had their annual medica! examinatioss, + they started to show abnorma) atpounts of strontinm, cesdum and plotonium—radioactive elements which can
@anse cancer over the long term—tin their bodies.
“trust fand for the Bikinians.
"
But last year a study sponsored by the US De
G/21/25
for years, is finally to be done this fall by the departments
of Defense and Energy and the Navy, and Mr. Winkel says
be hopes it will show Eneu to be a safe place for the Biki-
‘Binns to live. -
No one és betting on it, however, and the prospect is for
more years of unhappiness for the Bikinians. Interior De-
partment officials are now predicting that it will be anotber'30 to 50 years before Bikini’s radioactivity levels will
decline sufficiently to make it a safe place to live.
When the district administrator and other officials visSted Bikini last month to inform the people there of the
plan to move therm to Kili, the people responded saying
they would not go. Mr. de Brum hopes that was simply
their way of expressing their unbappiness with their fate,
he believes they will leave peacefully when the boats—
and television crews to record the erant—arrive later this
month. Others are pot se optimistic
And what would these people, some of whom have difficulty grasping the alien idea that a coconut could be
a consider a reasonable alternative to life on Biki-
Henchi Balos, hastening to mote that be personally
thinks it is a terrible idea, seys many Bikinians remaining
. @@ Kili have bees asking for a bong timethat they be relocated in the United States —specifically in Florida. “Samehow, the people beard the climate was similar,” be exTOMORROW: Work is going on to allow residents
fo return to Eniwetak,sile of other nuclear terts.
’
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