1.

PROBLEM AND SOLUTIONS

The Bikini Atoll
to

report

Bikini

independently on

Atoll

Office

Rehabilitation Committee was authorized by Congress

(1N)*.

of

the

feasibility

and

cost

of

rehabilitating

The Committee was initiated two years ago through the

Territorial

and

International

Affairs,

Department

of

the

Interior, working with the Bikini people.
Planning

for

rehabilitation

involves

two

separate tasks.

The

first

one deals with how the contamination of the Atoll

by radioactive. fallout

can

the

be

reduced

protection

otherwise

standards,

biological
civilian

or

and

while

at

environmental

needs

of

controlled
the

to

same

integrity.

resettlement

meet

per

se

time

|The
--

the opportunity to

participate

in

respecting

second

task

revegetation

water supply, housing, community buildings, etc.
given

Federal

radiation

the

deals
and

atoll's
with

the

agriculture,

The Bikinians should be

such

planning

and

in

the

actual

Committee

defines

and

evaluates

work that follows.

In

this

report

approaches

and

approaches

are

(No.

1),

techniques

based

on

the

for

(1)

contamination. control.

the

spontaneous

The

decay of

two

the
major

radioactivity or

(2) the removal of contaminated soil.
1.1

Background

In
Bikini

1946

Atoll

weapons.

the

U.

S.

Government

so that the atoll

could

removed

be used

the

167

inhabitants

of

for the testing of nuclear

That program ended in 1958 after 23 tests which had rendered the

atoll unsafe for human habitation (2).
The
(Figure 1),

Bikini

then

people

briefly on

were

settled

Kwajalein,

and

first
finally

on
in

Rongerik

Atoll

September 1948 on

Kili Island, some 425 miles south of Bikini Atoll (3).

*References

SOo0oIG

with

an

N

(e.g.,

1N)

contain

i

a

note as well

as

a

citation.

Select target paragraph3