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Followup monitoring of these people and their environment
in 1974 produced the first measurements of radioactivity in
their bodies.
These levels were very low, were not significantly
different from people in other parts of the world, and were well'
within Federal standards.
Repeat body burden measurements of
Cesium-137 (a fission product radionuclide similar to Potassium)
in 1977 showed a 10-fold increase. These measurements indicated
exposures were rapidly approaching the accepted Federal Radiation
Protection Standard values.
With these findings, officials of
the Department of the Interior (DOI) were briefed and recommendations made that local foods grown on Bikini Island should not
be eaten.
DOI instituted a program for alternate food supplies
to be brought to Bikini Island.
In April 1978, the third set
of body burden measurements indicated a three-fold increase
above 1977 values and twelve persons out of about 140 people
had body burdens that exceeded the Federal standards.
DOI was
again briefed and a decision to remove the people from the atoll
resulted.
The people left Bikini Atoll in late August 1978 and returned
to Kili Island to the south where they had lived previously.
Removed from a diet of locally produced foods on Bikini Island,
it can be expected that the peoples' body burdens of Cesium-137
will be rapidly reduced.
This will be checked by a fourth set
of measurements.
A radiological assessment will be made by DOE
of whether Eneu Island, the second largest in the atoll, is an
acceptable place for the people to live.
late January or early February 1979.
This will be ready in
Fnewetak
Cleanup of Enewetak Atoll is midway to completion.
Physical
cleanup operations are to be finished at the end of September
1979.
Following a seven-month demobilization period, Defense
Nuclear Agency (DNA) plans to leave the atoll in April 1980.
DOI responsibility for rehabilitation, which is in the form of
facility construction.and agricultural rehabilitation, will
continue.
DOE, acting as advisor to both these agencies, will
continue its radiological surveillance programs for the returning
people and their environment after cleanup and rehabilitation
is completed.
DOE ARCHIVES
DOE provided needed radiological criteria for use in planning
cleanup.
During the buildup phase at Enewetak, DOE provided
advanced technology instrumentation systems for rapidly measuring
jevels of transuranium elements and other gamma emitting radio.
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