Dr. Robert Conard, Brookhaven National Laboratory.
rsented at Inter—tvency Meetin(
Sent. 19, 1975
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A REVIEW OF PERSONNEL MONITORING AT BIKINI
As a result of the recent meeting at Kili by Trust Territory, ERDA and
Micronesian Legal Service officials concerning restrictions on rehabilitation
of Bikini it is apparentthat there are several points of misunderstanding in
the minds of the Bikini people concerning statements I have made regarding the
radiological safety of Bikini.
Before reviewing the radiological monitoring
obtained on the people living at Bikini I would like to clarify some of the
confusion.
First, at the time of the Ad Hoc Committee meeting, the visit of
the Trust Territory and AEC officials to Kili in 1968
and my visit to the
island in 1969, the statements made about the radiological safety of Bikini
were justified based on the survey data compiled at that time.
Subsequent
analyses of personnel monitoring data on the people living at Bikini showed
low levels of vadicactivity in the people confirming the original conclusions.
In all sincerity, I disclosed this as additional assurance to the people
living there.
Based on these findings I would not hesitate to live in one
of the houses on Bikini.
I am sad about the statements a few people made
about me at the Kili meeting.
I have great friendship and respect for the
people of Bikini and in no way and at any time have I tried to mislead thea,
From the beginning there wore certain restrictions concerning rehabilitation
it necessary to impose further restrictions.
I would like to clear up another point of confusion regarding "medical"
examinations.
We have never done medical examinations on the Bikini people
for possible radiation effects.
The reason is that the radiation levels are
so low that such examinations are not necessary.
For this reason it is wrong
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for anyone to accuse us of using the people living at Bikini to study radiation
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of Bikini. It is only ve1y recently that radiological survey data has made
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