Bikini and Enyu are overgrown wich a jungle-like stand of scrub
vegetation which will sustain neither subsistence nor commerce.
This
vegetation must be cleared and the two islands replanted to coconuts
and other food crops.
Additionally, most of the islands are littered
with structures and scrap materials remaining from the testing programs.
These remains, some of which are dangerous because of deterioration alone,
some because of residual radioactivity, and others because they would
interfere with or preclude agricultural redevelopment, must be removed
before the Bikini people can be permanently resettled on the atoll.
Housing and community facilities are non-existent and need to be provided.
This paper presents a redevelopment and resettlement program for

Bikini in compliance with the President's statement that "It is our goal
to assist. the people of Bikini to build on these once desolated islands

a new and model community."

On August 12 the President requested the Secretary of Defense, the
Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, and the Director of the Bureau
of the Budget to cooperate and assist in effectuating a resettlement

program.
Bikini Atoll will come under the administrative jurisdiction of
the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and the Department of the

Interior. The Atomic Energy Commission has an interest because the Commission, under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and its amendments, is given
certain responsibilities to protect health and minimize danger to life or
property from hazards that may be associated with activities in which AEC

has a role.
The Department of Defense is another interested agency since
the research and development work in the military application of atomic
energy at Bikini Atoll was jointly conducted by the Defense Department and
AEC under direction of the highest levels of the United States Government.
The Bikini Atoll currently is under the jurisdiction of the Department of
Defense.
‘
To determine the problems and develop estimates of redevelopment costs
the Atomic Energy Commission, the Department of Defense, the Department of
the Interior and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands conducted an
on-site survey of Bikini in late August 1968.
Until conditions on the
islands had been inspected no reliable redevelopment cost estimates could

be projected.

The habitable islands of Bikini and Enyu must be cleared

of unusable and unsafe structures and debris before further redevelopment
can proceed.
Other islands of the atoll which are neither safe for continuous human occupation nor are productive in an agricultural context will be
cleared of all dangerous debris.
Following, the August-September 1968 survey trip the Atomic Energy Commission prepared estimates of the cost of clearing the islands of debris and

scrub vegetation and the Trust Territory developed estimates ror replanting,

we ae

4

ooo2.

eed

redevelopment and resettlement.
Cleanup costs are estimated te be approximately $1,200,000 and it is further estimated that the cleanup job could be

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