Mbbgh Ls BRagUR et
Tene a
agriculturalist,
5 aeaR0
an anthropologist and representatives of the
Pacific Islands Trust Territories,
Department of the Interior.
Eight of the moSt highly qualified experts available were
asked to review the survey material.
After meeting with mem-
bers of the survey team and examining their reports,
these
consuitants reached the unanimous conclusion that it would be
radiologically safe to allow the Bikini people to return to
their home atoll.
Their report was forwarded to the Secretary
of the Interior earlier this month.
While Bikini is best known as a weapons testing site, it
has also contributed significantly to man's knowledge of the
long term effects of radiation on an environment.
During the years when radiation levels were too high for
people to live there permanently,
the AEC sponsored several
scientific studies on the atoll.
In fact,
Bikini truly served
as a living ecological laboratory.
Before it was either a proving ground or laboratory,
though, Bikini was a home land.
Having been closely associated
with nuclear energy,
for all these years,
and Bikini,
I find it
particularly gratifying now to take part in the atoll's return
c
to usefulness as a home for the Bikinian people.
Copies of the technical data from #@ee survey are available
for examination at the Public Document Room in AEC's Washington
office at 1717
H Street.