The first one is for the Bikinians to resettle Bikini
Island with
the proviso that no food be grown nor ground water consumed on that island
during the decontamination waiting period.
Fishing would be permissible.
The plan therefore entails large scale food imports; a substitute
for
ground
water which
control
of
agriculture
flower
buds
2-3 times
plant
assays
survey).
of
Over
would total
is
of great importance
and
especially
a year, annual
radioactivity
an
80-year
every
period,
about $20 million.
contaminated
ground
water
coconut
cost
5
the
in
times
of
production
about $100,000);
years
(cost,
food control
about
drought;
the
(nipping
the
and
soil
and
$500,000
per
and monitoring costs
The cost to generate a substitute for the
would
be
less
than
$1
million,
but
a
precise
figure cannot be given now since the number of settlers is not known.
The
off-limits
second
for
one
involves
agriculture.
resettling
Since
Eneu
is
Eneu
while
one-half
as
declaring
Bikini
large
Bikini
as
(2.4 km?) , it is practically certain that it could not support a population
of 1100 living in traditional
fact
return).
Its
fashion (assuming that all Bikinians would in
ground water supply appears
to
be
Bikini, of course, would have to be monitored and food
good
(Appendix A).
(coconut). production
prevented.
4.2
Treatment of Soil
Four
types
of
treatment
have
been
considered
--
leaching,
biological extraction by cropping, topping with clean soil, and application
of high-potassium
fertilizer.
The
first
ineffective, cumbersome or too expensive.
promise where the level
three of these are
regarded as
Treatment with fertilizer shows
of contamination is low.
Unit costs
for some of
these operations are given in Table 7.
4.2.1
Leaching.
Thirty-five
years
of
rain,
averaging
some
150 cm (60 inches) per year, have failed to wash the radionuclides from the
5000028
30