July 25, 1968 oH ene ee meme nee meme 40836. Memorandum RG BR To: The President From: Secretary of the Interior Subject: Return of the Bikini People US BOL ARCHIVES 326 U.S. ATOMIC EMERG _COMMISS ON 'Coeheelan | Box . ae oS Te ~ : Pte NM|Hes 3 - oot. HCE RE ta ¥ Rada Tix Wf ~— Poder } were wae rua ee eee eerannem etreeani ei ari ter rein maar RR atoll in order to permit ve it tite.used for atomic testing. These people, originally about 150, were ultimately settled on Kili isiand in the southern Marshalls, They have never adjusted to Kili, which is smail and has no lagoon, but have retained an intense desire to return to Bikini. In early 1967, at my request and that of Trust Territory High Commissioner Norwood, the Atomic Imergy Commission made a special survey of the atol. in order to determine whether radiation levels were such as to enable people safely to live on its islands. Following this intensive survey of . the atoll and a review by a special committee of consultants, an affirmative conclusion was reached. Attached is a copy of the special committee's report which states that ". . . Bikini Atoll, site of more than 20 nuclear tests between 1946 and 1958, is once again safe for human habitation." At my request, the Secretary of Defense has pushed ahead with a special study of security requirements in that part of the Pacific and has advised me that return of the people to Bikini is compatible with those requirements. , The Defense Department may wish to install some umnanned devices, such as | radar towers, and on a limited scale station personnel on the atoll, but these activities will not prevent resettlement by the Bikinians nor be i ~ wee inconsistent with the re-establishment of their normal life on the etoll.