(4) Bikini Islanders Lose Out Again Gentizued from Mh Page vide 2. transportation link to Jaluit Atoll, where a coiony of Bilamans had deen established as part of the community development project. At first the scheme prospered, morale improved and some thought the Bukiniang rmght learn to adjust to Kilt Then, bate in 1957, and early the next year, typhoons sank the copra boat. destroyed the new agricultural projects and wrecked the Jalwitcolo- By. After that, according to Tobin, the Deart seemed Lo go out of the enies. died of leukemia, another of cancer of the stomach. believed to have been caused by the Bravo fallout, BikinuIstand, although unoccupied, ‘was intensely irradiated, a fact which would have conscquences which wil be felt for generations. The Bravo disaster and the world- wide publicity given to it played a part in the eventual suspension of nuclear testing in 1958—1he year of the 2rd and final shot at Dikintand in the nuclear test-ban ireaty of 1963, which ended atmosphene testing by . the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union. On Mareh 1, 1954, test shot Bravo, an H-bomb 750 tunes more powerful than the first atomc bomb, was ex- ploded at Bikini with tragic results. An unpredcted wind shift after the blast had sent the 20-mile-high cloud of radioactive partcies dniting in the wrong direcuion, across Bikini Isiand and beyond The piumestretched 240 gules long and 40 mules wide, over an area far outside the resiricted danger sone. . Rongelap, Rongenk and Utlrik atolls, all inhabited by Marshallese and US. mulitary personnel, were in Une path of the faiicut, which in some places fluttered down Lke snowflakes. Twenty-eight Amencans, 244 Marshallese and~aithough tt was not known unul sometime later—23 crewmen of the Japanese fishing boat Fukwyu (Lucky Dragon) were yermously radiated One crewman ded of complicauons. The rest spent a year in hospitals. . The Amencans and Lhe Marshal- With the end of testing. pressure Mounted to return the enies to Bikini. William Norwoed, now living in returement in Hawan, served as high commissioner of the Trust Terniory from 1966 to 1969. In a recent intervew with The Times, he said, “We had, of course, SEC The experts warned that the coconut crabs should not be eaten. SAOETea “phen under pressure from the Bikim fers themselves to get them off of in They were consiantly asking to be put on some other island. They hoped first and foremost for Bikini .. . | remember being introduced to Chief Juda, who very emotionuly and persuasively, and almost tearfully, pleaded with me lo ether get them ck to Bikini or, fauing that. to get them a better place than Kil.” fese, evacuated and treated in milltary hospitals almost immedyicly, did not seem at the time to have suffered manent harm. No one seems to what happened to the Amencans. But over the years. 47 of the Marshallese have developed thyroid abocrmaliues, seven of them diagn- call his name—told tum that mon:oring of Bikina's radiation ievels indiCaled il might now be safe once again for permanentreoccupation. bad their thyroids removed. One has mal request by Secretary of the In- oped a3 cancerous. Thirty-five have _ Norwood said that dbout the same lime a representative of the Atomic Energy Commussion==he does not re- In May, 1967, some ume after a for- terior Stewart Udall, the AEC sent a team of Lechnologists to make an intensive radiological survey of the atoll. On Aug. 12, 1968, President Johnson announced Lhat Bikiny was safe, Chat 1b would be rehabilitated and resettled “with all possible dispatch,” Glenn T. Seaoorg, ACC chairman. explained that the President's finat decision had heen based on the recommendation of “eight cf the most highly quaulied experts available” cfter studying the 1967 survey results and unanimously concluding that Bi- kunt Istand and Eneu Island. 10 mues away, were radiologicaily safe enough lo allow reestablishment of the Bilunuans there. The experts—all either AEC employes or employes of AEC contractors —warned (hat the coconut crabs should nol be eaten because of their ugh content of strontium 90. There were no warnings about any ather jocal foods. They recommended that radiological checks be made penodi- cally to determune how much radia- tuon the people were being expased lo from external ennronmental sources and from their det Chief Juda did not live to hear the news. He had died—-shertly before the Johnson announcement—of cancer, which he behcved had caused by his exposure to thefirst A- bomb test in 1956. a clam scientists are inclined to discount. Ironeally, especially in view of what was to be iearned 10 years Ister. several Bikiruans expressce suspicion about the food growing on the contaminated atoll during a tour of the islands a few weeks afler the Johnson announcement One of Lhe Ditumans, named Jibay, even refused to touch food fram the atoll, insisung it was poiscnous. Another, Layo, made J forecast that, from the perspecuve of 1978, scems far more acute and accurate than the predictions of any of the U.S. bureaucrats or smenusis. “It will take radiation leveis in the interior of the island were too high to permmt people to build and live in homes there. “We didn’t really find any surpnses fm that external radsation field,” sad Tommy McCraw, who had been involved in both the 1967 and the 1975 surveys. However, at the same time. it was determined for the first time that !acally grown breadfruit and pandanus —two popular items of diet—were too radioscuve_to be safely consumed over the long term. Coconuts, even een The internal dose had risen dramatically between 1974 and 1977. em more of a stapie in the local diet, were to be safe. Then last summer, a Lawrence Livermore Laboratory study done for the Encrgy Research and Develop- ment Agency, an AEC successor agency. found that well water on Bu- huni execeded federal standards for radioactive stronuum 90. Other levels of radiauon on the w- land were so high, according to the report, that there was lide margin for safe absorpuon of any additional doses (rom che food chain. But, at the same ume, ERDA en- vronmental safety official Roger Ray armerae i a on said it would be ure to say that the Bikunians shouldbe movedof their atoll. By fall, hough,there do longer was any quesuon: Ray a meeting of the Bikini-Kili Couned in Mayuro that Bikunt Island “should no longer be considered a permanent e~ ment” and advised that connderaucna, pe piven \o moving the settlement to et, It seemed the scentsts had now determined that the Bikinians were absorbing radiauon at a rate substaaUally above the fedcraj safely mandard of .5 rem per ycar, a measureMent of radiauon dosage of any kind producing biclogical effects in man. According to the Deparument of Energy (successor to ENDA) the ex- emai dose on Bikuu Isiand tn 1977 was 2, the same as in 1974 But the internal dose, measured by an mSrument calied the whale body counter, had nsen dramaucally m three years—from a reac:ng of O67 in 1974 to a top of in 1977. And the coconut was named as the Tadioacuve “villain,” since it was ihe only locally grown food then bemg consumed im any quanuly. As one sCienust put it, the coconut paime Were "sopping up” radioacuve cenum 13? and strontium 90 at 2 much Seater rate than anyone predicted, Pisese Turn to Page 10, Col. 2 100 years before the stands are back im shape again,” Tobin reported him as saying." . . . The islands are com- pletely runed now.” Sul, despite their suspicions and the obvious enormity of the job. the Bucinians on the tour apparently were convinced by the officials and scientists that at least the islands of Bixima and Ereu, {0 mules away, coud o¢ madelivable. The Bikinians reported the cond:tons they had seen and the plans (hat were being made for rehabitauon to their fellow islanders on Kah. Oniy two or three of the 300 then fiving there voted against the idea of an eventual return to Bikint. The cieanup began in February, 1969. using some Bikimans on tne work crew. The rest of the renabiLiadion project—piowing up Bilum and Eneu Islands. replanung them with food crops, began !aier the same year. few famabes began moving bacx to ni By 1974, the $225,000 cleanup and the $3 million rchabiltauon program was through its first phase. Forty of the planned 80 homes had been erected Then, as planning for the second phase was begining, the Bikunans said they wanted to locale some of the new structures in the wnlenorof the island. The follomng year, another AEC tadsological survey was made, tus ume in more detail it was found that