Bilcini Islanders Lose Out Again Seatinzed from Sth Page vide a. transportauon Unk to Jaluit Atoll, where a colony of Bilunans had been established as part of the community development project At first Ge scheme prospered. morale improved and some Lhoughtthe Bikinians might learn to adjust Lo Kuli, Then. late in 1957, and early the next year, typhoons sank the copra boat, destroyed the new agricultural projects and wrecked the Jaiuil colopy. died of leukemia, another of cancer of the stomach, believed to have been caused by the Bravofallout. Bikini Island, although unoccupied, was intensely irradiated, a fact which would have consequences which will be felt for generations. The Bravo disaster and the worldwide publicnty given to it played a part in the eventual suspension of nuclear lesting in 1958—the ycar of Lhe 23rd and final shot at Bikini—and in the nucicar Lest-ban (treaty of 1963, which ended almosphene testing by After that, according to Tobin, the . the United Slates, Britain and the Sobeart seemed to go out of the exiles, viet Union. With the end of testing, pressure mounted to return the exiles lo Bikini. On March 1. 1954, test shot Bravo, an H-bomb 750 tunes more powerful William Norwood, now living in rethan the first atorme bomb, was extirement in Hawas, served ag high pioded at Bikini with tragie results. commissioner of the Trust Terntory An unpredicted wind shift after the from 1966 to 1963. blast had sent the 20-mile-high cloud In a recent internew with The of radioacuve particles drifting in the Times, he said, “We had, of course, wrong dirccuon, across Bikini Island and beyond The plume stretched 240 muies long and 40 mies wide, over an The experts warned area far outside the resincted danger sone. , that the coconut crabs Rongelap, Rongenk and Utirik — atolls, ail inhabited by Marshallese should not be eaten. and US. military personnel, were in aee une path of the fallout, which in some places fluttered down Like snowflakes. bben under pressure from the Bikins peorie themselves to get them off of Twenty-eight Amemcans, 244 Marln They were constantly asking lo shallese and-although it was not known unul sometime tater—23 be put on some other island. They crewmien of the Japanese lishing boat hoped first and foremost for Bikini Fukuryu Maru (Lucky Dragon} were .. . Eremember being introduced to senously irradiated. One crewman Chief Juda, who very emot.onaily and persuasively, and almost tearfully, cued of complications. The rest spen' leaded with me to either get them a year in hospitals. ‘ ck lo Bikini or, failing that, to get The Americans and the Marshallese, evacuated and treated in milita- them a better place than Kil.” Norwood said that about the same ry hospitals almost immedyatcly, did Mot seem at the time to havesuffered lime a representative of the Atomic manent harm. No one seems to Energy Commussion—he does not rewhat happened to the Ameri- call his name—told him that monitorcans. But over the years, 47 of the ing of Bikinis radiation levels indiMarsnallese have developed unyroid cated it might now be safe once again abnormaiiues, seven of them diagn- for permanent reoccupaton. In May, 1967. some umeafter a foroved as cancerous. Thirty-five have had their thyrords removed. One has tal request by Secretary of the ln- terior Stewart Udall, the AEC sent a team of technologists to make an intensive radiological survey of the atoll. On Aug. 12, 1968, President Johnson announced that Buan was safe, that it would be rehabilitated and resetUed “with all possible dispatch.” Glenn T. Seaporg, AEC chairman, explained that the President's final decision had been based on the recommendation of “erght cf the most highly qualified experts available” cfter studying the 1967 survey results and unanimously concluding that Bikant Island and Eneu Isiand, 10 mules away, were radiologically safe enough lo allow reestablishment of the Bilunians there. The experts—all either AEC employes or employes of AEC contractors —warned that the cocenut crabs should not be eaten because of ther high content of strontium 90. There were no warnings about anyother local foods. They recommended that radiological checks be made pemodically to determune how much radiahon the people were being exposed to from external environmental sources and from they det. Chief Juda did not live to hear the news. He had died—shortly before the Johnson announcement~of cancer, which he believed had been caused by his exposure to the first Abomb test in 19456, a clam scientists are incuned te discount Tramecally, especiuly in view of what was to be learned 10 years Iater, several Bikimuans expressed suspicion about the food growing on the contaminated atoll dunng a wour of the islands a few weeks after the Johnson announcement One of the Dikumans, named Jibaj, even refused lo touch [ced from the atcll, insisting tt was porscnous. Another, Layo, made 4 forecast that, from the perspective of 1978, seems far more acute and accurate than the predictions of any of the US. bureaucrats or scienusts. “It will take radiation leveis in the interior of the island were too high to permit people to build and live in homes there. “We didn't really find any surpnses fs that external radiauonfield,” said Tammy McCraw, who had been involved in both the 1967 and the 1975 surveys. However, at the same ume, it was determined for the first time that locally grown breadfruit and pandanus =two popular items of diet were too vadioactive to be safely consumed over the long term. Coconuts, even SSE The internal dose had risen dramatically between 1974 and 1977. AR more of a staple in the local diet, were Teported to be safe. Then last summer, 2 Lawrence Livermore Laboratory study done for the Energy Research and Deveiopment Agency, am AEC successor agency, (ound that well water on Bitoni exceeded federal standards for Tadioacuve stronuum 9. Other levels of radiauon on the 1s- land were so high, according to the Teport, that there was liltle margin for safe absorption of any additional doses from Une food chain. But, at the same ume, ERDA environmental safety official Roger Ray ‘ sad it would be ture to that the Buuniane thould be moreso theiratoit. By fall, though, there no longer ‘Was any question: Ray told a meeung of the Bikuni-Kil Counc in Mayuro that Bikini Island “showd no lon: be considered a permanent setilement” and advised that connderauon be given lo moving the setUement to Eneu. It seemed the scienusty had now Getcrmined Lhat the Bikimans were absorbing radiauon at a rate substantuaily above the federal safety standard of 5 rem per ycar, a measurement of radiauon dosage of any kund producing biological effecis in man. According to the Department of Energy (successor tao ERDA) Lhe external dose on Bikuu Island in 1977 was 2, the same asin 1974 But the Internal dose, measured by an mstrumentcalled the whole body counter, had nsen dramaucally in three years—from a reading of O6T in 1974 to a top of wn 1977. And the coconut was naned as the radioactive “villain,” since it was the onty locally grown food then beng consumed in any quanuly. As one scienust put il, the coconut palms were ‘sopping up” radioacuve cesura 137 and stronuum 90 at a much gveater rate than anyone predicted, Please Tura to Page it, Col £ 100 years before the islands are back m shape agan,” Tobin reported hun ‘ The islands are comvas saying... pletely runed now.” Stull, despite their suspimons and the obvious enormuty of the job, the Bikinans on the tour apparently were convinced by the officials and scientists that at least the isiands of Bicima and Eneu, 10 mules away, could be made Jivable. The Bikanians reported the condtions they had seen and thepians that were being made for rehab.J:lauon to their feilow islanders on Kali. Only two or three of the 300 then Living there voted against the idea of an eventual return to Buunt. The cleanup degan in February, 1969, using some Bikimans on the work crew. The rest of the rehabuitation preject—plowing up Bikin and Eneu Istands, replanung them with food crops, began later the same year. A few famibes began moving back ta. Bini . By 1974, the $225,000 cleanup and the $3 million rehabiliation program was through its first phase. Forty of the planned 80 homes had been erectThen. as planning for the second phase was beginning, lhe Bikunans said they wanted to locate some of the new structures in the interior of the istand. The following year, another AEC radiologicai survey was made, tus ume in more detail. It was found that é