1171 Mr. Yates. Were the Bikini £ er_Feders) yediation signdards? venreet They were but the radiation dose from intake of food gun to rise. Mr. Yates. Did any go over the top! Mr_Du. None of the people have gone over the top as far as the cesiim Jevels. They are very close to the maximumallowabh dose from the marimum of permissible amounts of cesium. Mr. Yares. Are the people living in the houses along the rosd? — Dea.. Yes. and they are getting the radioactivity in their bodies from their diet, from eating the locally grown foods. . _In retrospect, this is probably the big mistake made in the beginning of the resettlement program in that we made recommendationwhich turned out to be impractical! in the sense that to have gardengroring but then tell the people not to eat the products. Mr. Yarzs. Was he told to grow his garden and eat that food? Was he told that hecould do that t i nibited ; ue Lisi, e original recommendations prohibited eating certain of the loca] foods. ne P . _ Mr. Yarzs. This is right. But J think I read here the houses were built on pads of coral and that they were told not to eat the coconut crab. You say you brought in outside foods at the initial stages. Was this to cut down on the possible intake of radiation residuals? Did ron bringin outside food from thestart Esl. Yes. sir. CURRENT FEEDING PBOGRAM OX BIKINI IBLANDE Mr. Yarzs. I guess outside food is still being brought in. Mr. peYorne. Jt was not until early lest vear. Mr. Chairman. that the tree crops and some of the other vegetable crops began to become fully productive. So up unti] 1977 they had been existing primarily. on food products that were brought in from the outside. Some of these were surplus agricultursa] commodity foods plus the Jocal marine food which had been certified to be suitable. MOXTTORING OF BIKINI ISLAND Mr. Yates. When did they get the cesium then! . Mr. ppYorne. As Mr. Deal indicated, when this high level of cesium was revealed, « series of analyses were carried out. Mr. Yarzs. When was it revealed! Mr. peYouxc.in 1976. . Mr. Yarzs. Then the Department—were you stil] the AEC in 1976! r. ‘We were ERDAin 1976. t. YaTzs. So you becamea little more alarmed than when vow were the Atomic Energy Commission. In %6 vonfirst encountered this kind of 9 tome siannualthat ou had been making of the people ! . Dear. Yee sir. 7 . tes, monthly, semiannually, every four $e Ya Tas,kind months. or w DOE ARCHIVES S0014Gb