ft WH WJ . - UNITED STATES — ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20545 KOV § 1374> Mr. Stanley Carpenter Director of Territorial Affairs Department of the Interior Washington, D.C. 20240 Dear Mr. Carpenter: As a result of our visit to Enewetak and Bikini Atolls and the difficulty the Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA) is experiencing in obtaining cleanup funds, we would like to call several items to your attention. We believe it is essential to verify that the radiation doses to the returning Bikini people do indeed fall within the predictions and that they do not exceed Federal standards.-- In view of the=: complexity of the radiation protection. measures necessary for. - safe resettlement of Bikini Atoll, we-see.a need for our respective - offices to maintain a closer working reletionship. Weurge that future rehabilitation plans such as developme:at of a proposed Bikini master plan be coordinated with us”in edvance of implementation. For some time we have been concerned that recommendations on ) Bikini rehabilitation (that called for construciion of the first housing and planting of immediate food crops on Eneu Island) were not strictly followed. instead houses were builf on Bikini Island and there appears to be a prospect of more home con-_struction on Bikini Island. . While we do not believe there is animmediate problem with external radiation doses exceeding standards for peo:le living on Bikini Island in the houses already constructed along the lagoon road, there are two other considera, tions that can have an impact on total dose levels. First, we are unable to predict the full effect of use of. significant amounts of locally produced food such as pandanus and breadfruit that will contribute to internal dose. Second, with space on each Wato near the lagoon shore already occupied by existing housing, future construction must necessarily be on land nearer the interior of the island, an area known to have higher external radiation levels than the shore areas, It is conceivable that the combination of living in the island interior ané eating foods grown on Bikini Island could result in annual doses higher than predicted by our earlier studies. aE US DOE ARCHIVES i 326 U.S. ATOMIC ENERGY RG COMMISSION ae Collection Depf Box So | Colder Sacl SheeT- Bilin! Onn mom — J _ | }