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Agreement Between The United States Department of Energy
=
and
The Trust Territory of The Pacific Islands Regarding Medical Care of the
Rongelap and Utirik People
The United States Department of Energy (DOE), formerly ERDA and AEC,
has for nearly twenty-four years conducted a program of medical surveilance
of the people of Rongelap and Utirik atolls who were accidentally exposed
to fallout from a weapons test in 1954.
Since 1956 this program has been
carried out tnder the direction of Brookhaven National Laboratory
(BNL)
with the cooperation and participation of the Trust Territory of the Pacific
Islands
(TTPI).
The purpose of this document is to formulate an agreement
between DOE and the TTPI concerning the DOE-BNL Medical Program in the
Marshall Islands.
This agreement supersedes and extends that of February,
1977 (copy attached).
The agreement reached between ERDA and TIPI
(December 2, 1974) regarding implementation of the Congress of Micronesia
PL-5-52 (Trust Territory Fallout Survivors Act, cOpy
in effect.
attached) continues
This agreement allows for free hospitalization within the Trust
Territory (including travel and per diem allowances for individuals in the
Rongelap or Utirik exposed and control groups who become ill.
The people living on Rongelap and Utirik atolls have recently and
separately requested that the DOE Medical Program include more comprehensive
care for all the people living on these islands.
This resulted in the
February 1977 agreement referred to above with provisions for increased
medical assistance by DOE to the TIPI in the discharge of health care responsibilities to the people living on Rongelap and Utirik.
During the past year, the
agreement has been implemented by both parties, apparently to the satisfaction
of the Marshallese people involved.
That agreement only covered the calendar
year 1977; hence, the present agreement is intended to supplant that one,
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