Department of Energy Pacific Area Support Office PO. Box 29939 Honolulu, Hawali 96820 £1979 coer wre phSD WV. J. Stanley, Director Pacific Area Support Office Backyround ’ On May 12, 1979, I traveled to Majuro to assist the BNL Medical and Whole Body Counting teams and to represent DOE in meetings with Marshall Islands Government officials. nd i bed that the Ministers of State. The President _seemed Marshalls people felt they were not getting al] the facts from the U.S, Government as tofhealth problems ]due to radiatigp. He cited "5? thyroid problems" in Likiep and made vague references to an official U.S. document which showed high levels of radiation in He also said that the Bikar and Bokar in the Northern Marshalls. birds there were dying and had very little body weight. fhe Bikar-Bokar news was rather shocking to us and Roger pointed out that the birds were so thick on Bikar that the helicopters had to fly higher than usual to prevent them from getting caught in the blades. General assurances were given that there were no indica- tions of high leveis at Hikar or Likiep and that more complete data would be available in the fall of 1979, The President also was upset in that he somehow felt that having us meeting the Board of Tobolar (the copra processing plant} and discussing sample taking, could damage the reputation of the plant because the buyers of their oil and copra cake might be scared cff Roger assured by the thought of Bikini copra being processed there. him and the Cabinet that our only interest was to understand the ‘process so it could be closely duplicated in the laboratory, and that we wanted to be completely above board in that regard. (A later conversation between the President and myself indicated that the emotional aspect of Bikini copra and the potential impact on their market if it was somehow associated with the Tobolar plant, blotted out this explanation.) @43 DRIP REPORT - MAJURO, KILT, JALUIT