the planning, High Commissioner W. R. Norwood of the Trust Territory
of the Pacific Islands led a party of Trust Territory officials, nine
Bikini natives, AEC and DOD representatives, and members of the
press, back to Bikini in late August, 1968.
1969 Operations and Survey.
in February 1969.
Cleanup operations commenced at Bikini
DOD directed the cleanup phase of the rehabilitation
project and this phase was completed in October 1969.
DOD and AEC
shared the cost of cleanup operations with each agency providing
$300,000.
AEC provided monitoring support during 1969 cleanup opera-
tions including guidance for disposal of scrap material.
The vegetation
removal operations carried out to provide space for replanting coconut
groves also provided access to all parts of Bikini and Eneu Islands
so that external radiation levels could be mapped in detail (in 1964
and 1967, heavy vegetation placed a limitation on how much area could
be surveyed).
During cleanup operations a significant number of additional samples
of foods, vegetation, soil and sediment, and well water were collected.
Separate draft reports containing the external radiation measurements
and results of analyses of radionuclide content of environmental samples
have been received fram the Southwestern Radiological Health. Laboratory
(SWRHL) and from the University of Washington.
The SWRHL report
contains
results of analysis for plutonium-238 and plutoniwm-239 in soil at two
locations on Eneman and the University of Washington report contains
ell
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