OFFICIAL USE ONiL / -4Captain Gay, from the Division of Military Application, described a meeting at the Department of the Interior where the interested agencies met to discuss the return of the Atoll to the natives. The natives quite naturally want the Atoll returned as soon as possible. The administrative details of returning the Atoll to the Trust Territory are simple but it is a serious problem to make the islands habitable for the natives. approach agreed upon was as follows: The The evaluation of the status of the Atoll in terms of health hazard was to be made by the AEC. Clean-up was to be performed by the Department of Defense. The final rehabilitation would come under the purview of the Department of the Interior. The Division of Military Application is the lead Division for coordination of the evaluation with other divisions of the AEC to be involved as required. The estimated cost for the evaluation is as follows: In FY 1973, $700,000; in FY 1974, $1,000,000. It will probably be a year before they can evaluate whether a clean-up of the Atoll is possible. Mr. Deal described the status of the clean-up of mine tailings in Grand Junction, Colorado. A total of $5,000,000 over a period of five years has been authorized by the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy to clean up the tailings in Grand Junction. The ratio of federal monies to state monies is 3:1. The engineering approach of physically removing mine tailings from umder houses and other buildings is possible but is extremely expensive. Another approach that has been looked at under laboratory conditions is to seal the concrete slabs and foundations with plastic to prevent radon from penetrating the buildings. A test under field conditions is now being conducted in one of the school buildings. Dr. Totter pointed out that at the time of the Bikini survey for rehabilitation of the natives, plutonium contamination was not considered to be a problem, but at about the time the islands were sufficiently cleared to begin planting the cononut palms, people began to worry about plutonium levels. The research vessel from the Puerto Rico Nuclear Center has been dispatched to Bikini to investigate transuranic elements. Measurements would be made both at Bikini and at Eniwetok. Dr. Forster from DBER described the proposed studies to be undertaken at these Atolls. Primarily they would look at the movement of transuranic elements through the ecosystems. The ship is scheduled to leave San Diego on September 8, 1972. Sampling of water is to be extensively conducted. The research is a joint effort on the part of the University of Washington, the Livermore Radiation Laboratory, and the Puerto Rico Nuclear Center. Dr. Forster indicated that through the years there has been an increasing emphasis on the number of research studies on the ecosystem at Eniwetok. In 1971 alone there were 110 identifiable separate projects. Dr. Forster then showed the data on plutonium concentrations in various materials taken from Bikini. The levels were not particularly high. The samples from Runit on the basis of preliminary data appeared to be higher but not as bad as one might have anticipated. Dr. Totter asked how these levels compared with contamination levels in other areas and the answer was that,for example, Rocky Flats shows a very much higher level of contamination. OFFICIAL USE ONLY