po ES og sceosrromLOS Abin:tar LAB COLLECTION 80x No HH C LLA3I -/ ogguoer CASTLE MBTHIES April 15, 1954 pera bee yee ee Dr. Thomas B. White Ry Bae oes $ CTG 7.1 Por Dear Tom: she beybsPol™ Enivetok, M. I. f AOMS9O CL-/ Y . Co. SS Ditri - . a ° Poem TN 4 fi. —? os ae fe> A2h, tle. pu Te GO oy af Bob Canada of W-Division has kindly agreed toerry this Istter out along with another letter to Al Graves. The letter primarily constitutes a proposal for a study to determine the date at which the Rongelap natives might be returned to their own home, and I suggested to Al that he should discuss this with you. It is our feeling that if this problem is stripped of all enotionaliam anc all political and diplomatic complications it should not be too difficult. Those of us here have done some pretty intensive think~ ing about it and feel that a small team of LASL people, assisted by Donaldson's group, advised by Tobin or Wilds, and supported by H&N could probably do the job with a minimum of confusion and delay. Such a project would have only the single objective of deciding when it would be safe to let the people return, and it should not be hampered by having a lot of experimental work tacked on to it. It is our feeling here that we could do all of this provided we could have charge of both the collection of sazples and the analysis. We would be reluctant to have some other group collect what samples they regarded as proper and expect us to carry out the assay, nor would we wish to collect samples to be assayed at NRDL or YOO, We feel quite strongly that the study should be started at the earliest possible moment, which would mean that you, Leo, Bob, Jim Perrings, plus those of Donaldson's group still around, would be definitely involved. Payne Harris, and possibly others, would come out from here. We would not expect all of you who are out there at the present to remain in the Forward Area for the duration of the study, but we would have to make certain that the results of repeated sampling trips were comparable and that samples and readings vere obtained with the same type of instruments and at the same locations. If we can't play this game the way we wish to, we are rather inclined not to play it at all. We have, of course, no desire to disregard the work which has already been done; that forms the principal backlog of information on which we would work. We do realise that the political and diplomatic implications in the problem sre of sufficient magnitude that the play may be taken completely out of our hands, which won't hurt our feelings in the slightest. es You have undoubtedly by this time seen the TWX sent to Al Graves on Tuesday| giving the findings to date on the first set of urine samples. Had we not had the arm counter, it is possible that we would have missed the iodine BEST COPYAVAILABLE == 54- aq a A