BIKINI RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM On August 12, 1968, President Johnson announced that certain islands in Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, Trust Territory of the Pacific, were no longer required for the nation's nuclear testing program and that they were safe for return to civilian uses. He called upon various inter- ested government agencies to cooperate in the preparation and implementation of a redevelopment and resettlement program. This announcement culminated a prolonged period of radiological and biological surveys by the Atomic Energy Commission and a specific 1967 study to determine whether the islands in the atoll were safe for human habitation. The President's announcement was based upon a finding that exposure to radiation that would likely result from repatriation of the Bikini people does not offer a significant threat to their health and safety and that these exposures may and should be reduced by taking certain simple precautions. Bikini was acquired by the U.S. Navy in 1946 and the persons then living on the atoll, about 150 people, were relocated ultimately on the island of Kili. The displaced Bikini people have been looking forward hopefully to the time when they could return to their home islands. The Bikini population now living on Kili amounts to about 350 persons and an additional 200 people claim land rights on Bikini. Kili lacks a lagoon and in other respects has not provided the Bikini people with the economic environment or resources they desire or to which they were accustomed when living on Bikini. Because of growing population pressures and a shortage of productively inhabitable land areas in the Marshalls, it is the policy of the United States to return to civilian uses any areas which are excess to its needs. The total land area of the Marshall Isdands is approximately 70 square miles. With a 1967 population of approximately 19,000, the population per square mile is 270. Kili has a land area of 0.36 square miles. On the other hand, Bikini Atoll has a land area slightly in excess of two square miles. lagoon area is about 229 square miles. Its Bikini Atoll is preatly changed as a consequence of the tests which were conducted there in the late 1940's and the 1950's. Some islands have disappeared or the remnants are mere sand spits; still others have been diminished in size as a result of blast effects and/or wave action; and loss of topsoil for the islands of the atoll varies from zero to almost 100%. While it has been determined that the island complex from Bikini to Enyu is safe for continuous habitation, radiation levels in the other parts of the atoll preclude continuous use. These other islands and island complexes may be visited for purposes of food collection (birds, turtles, their eggs, etc.), but present conditions on these islands preclude substantial agricultural s* wed : Teoe development at this time.