1178 Mr. Yares. Thenjp Tall of spdder nox that you are ERDAyou find the mi a tae In T5 we were asked by the Department of Interior for er Bullding additiona) houses in the interior of Bikini Island. It was at that time we mounted a rather large survey effort which included a lot of people going out and walking around the island with instruments. We have very large surveys done at that time with 30 or 40 people going out and making measurements of the soil, water sam- ples. vegetation samples. and measuring the external radioectivity. Mr. Yates. Were these tests being taken prior to 1875 as well ? Yes. But not anywhere near the scale we did this time. We concentrated on Bikini Island. It is precisely for this reason we want to have an serial survey because we can cover much more territory and much faster and we can see the same levels. When you have a person walking around, it takes more time. Mr. Dewcan. I understood vou to say that this rise in the level of measurements of strontium began in 75 and that your preliminary analysis indicates that it is coming from the food source and that that food source began to mature last year. How can we measure the increase in °75 when vou sav that it 1s coming from the food if the food wasn’t being produced until] “17? pirat That isa very good question. r. McCraw has done 8 lot of those surveys. , McCpiw. When the people first returned. there were few if any terrestrial food items grown in Bikini Island soi!. and available for their use. There are some things that grow wild. There were a few coco- nuts and arrowroot. There was a significant planting of coconut trees during the arigcultural rehabilitation effort. Mr. Duncan. Those were the ones that began maturing in 76? Am I not correct ? We are in '78. so last vear would have been ‘77. But now he is saving that the planting began to mature and it was “76, So we are narrowing the gap. Mr. pEYorna. It started in '76. Mr. Dewcay. It could be coconut or arrowroot that was being consumed prior to “76. You began to notice 6 rise in the levels of cesium and that those lerels have risen more rapidly since the domesticated plants matured and were consumed bythe inhabitants. Mohs We were initially using a predictive capability fora number of items in the diet that are now growing in the atoll. All we could do at first was sample the soil and try to predict the Jevels in food. . Mr. Yares. Where were they coming from? You said a number of items were not being grown. McGeaw. A number of items of the normal diet were not locally available when the people first went back. Those things have subsequently become available and we are seeing an increase in availability, an increase in uptske, and vou can't see at what exact point in time things occurred. Mr. Duxcan. Is there a leve) of sophistication to measure this that has been increasing? So we might attribute the greater levels to a greater ability to measure what was there al] along? Mr. Dear. Yes, and measure it easily. You can always measure if you took samples of soil and vegetation and went through a very costly gummy 5011524