Unite. States Departmentoftl... Interior OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY WASHINGTON, D.C. 20240 June 18, 1979 Mr. Richard J. Stone Deputy Assistant General Counsel for Intelligence, International and Investigative Affairs Office of the General Counsel Department of Defense Washington, D.C. 20301 Dear Mr. Stone: This is a followup to our telephone conversation of June 15, 1979, in which you requested information today on money actuallypaid to date under P.L. 95-134 for personal . injuries to.the people-of Rongelap and Utirik, and information on our projections for the future by way of compensation for personal injury for all of the Marshallese who may have been affected by the program of nuclear testing conducted in the Marshall Islands by the U.S. Government. The information on the exposed people of Rongelap and Utirik briefly is summarized below. Again, I must reiterate that there is no way we can reasonably make projections for the future. We are seeing late effects in the actual fallout victims now. Twenty years ago, medical authorities did not believe there would be any late effects. ‘There is no way of knowing what effects, genetic or otherwise, may turn up in the next generation or future generations. In August 1964, by P.L. 88-385 (78 Stat. 598), Congress authorized $950,000 as compassionate compensation to the 86 people of Rongelap for radiation exposure sustained by them as a result of the thermonuclear detonation at Bikini Atoll of March 1, 1954. Five percent of this amount was paid out for attorney fees, i.e.; $47,500; the balance, $902,500, was divided equally amongst. the affected Rongelap individuals. This came to $10,494 per individual. The 158 inhabitants of Utirik Atoll, who had received a ° lesser degree of fallout, were not included in P.L. 88-485, ' because at that time medical authorities held that the radiation dose they had received was not high enough to cause any ill effects. —s , Tee I Eg TRALENT: A the RTF ete eee rete ipete UTR Per MeCr nee: oi erere F011 bb2 knees we ter per ee