Wersgai island away from the lagoon. A routine radiological survey of Bikini Island conducted in June 1975 yielded ominous results. It revealed that the island's interior was too radioactive for housing and thar some wells chere were contaminated with radioactive plutonium. Furthermore, it showed that while co- conuts were safe, brcadfruit and pandanus. two staples of the Bikinian diet, contained unacceptably high levels of radiation. The survey report concluded that if the Bikini re- settlement program proceeded as planned, the people would receive external gamma radia- tion in excess of federally prescribed limits. The Bikimans. frustrated and confused by the contradictory information they were receiving, broughre suic in federal court in October 1975 to force the United Srates to stop the resettlement program until it conducted the much-discussed comprehensive radiolog- ical survey of the atoll. In che complaint the Bikinians openly conceded their ignorance as to the atoll’s safety, ignorance which, it now turns out, was shared by the U.S. govern- ment. The Bikintans stated: ‘For us to make an intelligent decision to resettle Bikini Arcoll, we must be able to weigh our desire to return against the radiological risks of returning. We have not been provided with that informa- well water on Bikini Island exceeded accept- able U.S. standards. Coconuts, formerly thought safe, turned out tocontain high levels of radiation, and the islanders were told that they could eat only one a day. Medical examinations revealed that the people living on Bikini had absorbed doses of cancer-causing radioactive elements—such as strontium, plutonium, and cesium—in excess of those con- sidered safe by U.S. experts. In early 1978 U.S. scientists concluded thar the Bikinians’ alarmingly high leveis of internal radiation were caused by their consumption of locally grown foods planted as part of the Bikini rehabilitation project U.S. officials immediately informed the 139 people living on Bikini Island that they could no longer eat locally grown food but were tosubsist solely on food and water brought in from the ourside. The outside food support system. which had been initiated in the mid-1970s to provide supplements to local food grown on Bikini, was a complete failure. Although the trust territory government scheduled monthly trips to take food to Bikini Island, it did not have enough ships to provide regular service. Ships did not call on Bikini for two or three monthsat a time, so the people on theisland. tion... .”’ having exhausted their supply of imported over which agency would pay for the survey, would have to be declared off limits for longterm habitation for at least 50 years. and it began to plan moving the people living on Settlement discussions quickly followed the filing of the lawsuit, and che United Srates readily agreed to conduct the survey. Nevertheless. governmental infighting continued and how much it would cost. The Defense Department, asked in 1976 to estimate the cost of a radiological survey of the entire northern Marshall Islands, put che figure at $2.58 million. The House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee promptly budgeted $2.6 million for the survey in 1977, but Defense took no action, saying it needed more money. food, had no choice but to eat the contaminated food they grew themselves. By March 1978 Interior concluded that Bikini Island Bikini Island five miles south to Eneu. : One month later a medical team arrived on Bikini co test the islanders again. Ironically. the Bikinians, who still did not understand the risks to which they were being exposed, offered coconuts—the most radioactive crop on the island—tothe arriving scientists as a sign of friendship. Examinations showed This squabble over paying for the survey lasted three years. During this time che fears of the Bikinians were borne out; tests in 1977 what was described as an ‘incredible’ one- showed that the level of strontium 90 in the year, 75 per cent increase in body burdens of radioactive cesium 137. U.S. scientists stated thac the people living on Bikini may have 88. 89.