The Honorable Wallace July 25, 1980 Page Two ©. Green Indeed, we could not even elicit a clear statement from any Executive Branch official as to the meaning the Executive Branch would give to the phrase "the people of such other atolls as may be found to be or to have been exposed to radiation from the nuclear weapons testing program." The Department of Energy officials present conceded that every atoll in the Marshall Islands was exposed to some level of radiation as a consecuence of the nuclear weavens testing program. Furthermore, these same officials conceded that since precise measurements were not taken on all the Marshall Islands atolls at the time, there simplv is no way of knowing how much radiation exposure occurred that woulc have acced to the radiation body-burden of the residents livine throughout the Marshall Islands at the time of the nuclear weapons testing program. Likewise, it was conceded by these same officials that tnere was simply no way to determine whether any particular adverse health effects experienced by anv particular Marshallese citizen related directly or indirectly to radiation exposure from the nuclear weapons testing program. Finally, these same officials also conceded that it would be far more costly to attempt to prove or disprove the relationship between radiation exposure and health effects in the Marshall Islands for cny partic:clar individual than simvly to provide comprehensive health care for those Marshallese individuals that suffer acverse health effects. It was further acknow- lecgec that it would be highly unethical to construct a major medical facility in the Marshall Islands to carry out the statutory mandate and then deny a Marshall Islands -Citizen suffering adverse health effects access to such a medical facility when the United States and indeed no one could Getermine with certainty that such adverse health effects did not relate directly or indirectly to the nuclear weapons testing program. All of these factual concessions, it seems to me, must inevitably lead to the reasonable conclusion that Congress intended to provide health care for persons of all atolls “exposed to radiation from the nuclear weapons testing program" when it enacted that legislative language. Despite this obvious, sensible Concressional intention, no one in yvrur Department was prepared to agree that the phrase “exposed to radiation from the nuclear weapons testing program” means "exposed to radiation from the nuclear weapons testing program.”