.RADIOLOGICAL RESURVEY OF ANIMALS, SOILS AND
GROUNDWATER AT BIKINI ATOLL, 1969

INTRODUCTION

Bikini Atoll was a site for atmospheric tests of nuclear

devices from 1946 to 1958.

The population of 166 Bikinians was

moved from the atoll in March,

1946,

then to Kwajalein Atoll; in November,
made to Kili Island.

first to Rongerik Atoll,

1948,

a final move was

The land area at Kili is about one-tenth

that at Bikini Atoll and there is no lagoon.

Therefore, access

to Kili is difficult, often impossible, and sea foods are scarce.
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The results of a radiological resurvey of Bikini in 1964 by

the University of Washington's Laboratory of Radiation Biology
indicated that Bikini might be radiologically safe for permanent
habitation.

A request from the High Commissioner of the Trust

Territories of the Pacific to the Atomic Energy Commission in

1966 to rehabilitate Bikini resulted in an extensive survey of
the atoll in the spring of 1967.
radiation measurements,

This survey emphasized external

including in situ gamma-rey Spectrometry,

although some food items were collected to supplement data from
the 1964 survey.

The 1967 survey party included personnel from

the Atomic Energy Commission's Health and Safety Laboratory, the

Division of Biology and Medicine, the U. S. Naval Radiolo ical

Department 0 Energy

9 0 0 2 lf Y 2

Historian’s Office
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