BIKINI ISLAND The island of Sikini is the largest in the atoll, having an area of about 0.6 square miles and has traditionally been the "home island” of the Bikinians. the ocean. Individual land rights extend from the lagoon to It is anticipated that the villaace will be rebuilt along the lagoon shore with community buildings heinc jocated about midway along the length. The istand was prepared for agricultural redevelopment by cutting parallel strips through the vegetation along the length of the island. cut.on 56-foot centers, were approximately 20 feet wide. The strips, The vegetative cover was knocked down and left in place to provide additional organic matter for the soil. The strips were surveyed and background gamma radiation levels recorded at 250-foot intervals along their lenath. Figure 2 illustrates the background variation by depicting the range and average of radiation measurements for areas consisting of approximately four strips. Although a large amount of debris was found on Bikini (from testing program and World War II) with one exception, none was radioactive. One pile of roofing saper scraps contaminated primarily with 137Cs was located northwest of center on the lagoon side of the island. This material, which snowed a contact reading of approximately 200 uR/hr, was loaded into 55-gallon drums and disposed of in the ocean south of Eneu. The measured exposure rates were 10 uR/hr or tess along the beaches, and ranged from 20-120 yR/hr inland. Soil samples taken at three locations having measured backgrounds of 20, 70, and 100 ;:R/hr showed 137Cs and 69Co to be the major gamma enitting contaminants. These were present in Cs/Co ratios of approximately 25/1, 50/1, and 30/1] respectively for the three samples, and thus the projected exposure rate decrease will very closely approximate the decay of !37C€s. In addition, 9°Sr was present in amounts ranging from 10-50% of the 137Cs concentrations. 80th !37Cs and 99Sr are very significant contributors to the potential internal exposure which may result from eating locally grown food items. Unless indicated as a Contact measurement all were taken at 3 feet. 7 WD 50045629 exposure rate measurements