DRAFT
38
1 May 79
ADMINISTRATION
The RMI inaugurates a parliamentary constitutional government.
15 May 79
RADIATION
RELOCATION
In response to a request by the DOI for a definitive statement by the DOE
on the possibility of returning Bikinians to Eneu Island, Ruth Clusen, the DOE
assistant secretary for environment, states that a return to Eneu Island cannot take
place for 20 to 25 years when applying the radiation criteria of 250 mrem/yr per
person used for the Enewetakese.
17 May 79
ADMINISTRATION
CONTRACTOR
RADIATION
Roger Ray and Harry Brown meet with President Amata Kabua and members
of the cabinet of the government of the Marshall Islands. They discuss the DOE’s
interest in gaining cooperation from the Tobolar copra plant to replicate the Tobolar
process in a laboratory at LLL. (Tobolar is a Marshallese word that means "sprouting
coconut.") They also confer about the safety of Eneu as a residential island, radiation
levels on Bikar and Bokar, thyroid abnormalities on Likiep, and the northern Marshall
Islands survey.*?
21 May 79
RADIATION
RELOCATION
The DO!informsthe T.T. that Eneu Island must be placed off limits as a place
of residence for the Bikini people for at least another twenty to twenty-five years.
The DOI stresses that the U.S. government must use the. same radiation exposure
criteria forthe peaple: ofBikini. as that used: for Enewetak*®
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4 Jun 79
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_ ~The MarshallNslands Nijitela (legislature) adopts.” resolution. requesting that
the U.S. government and the UN conduct aradiological survey of the waters and land
areas in the Marshall Islands, north of 8° north latitude, including all of Namu Atoll,
to determine radioactivity in the area and to carry out medical examinations to
identify physical disorders which maybe attributable to nuclear explosions on Bikini
and Enewetak Atolls.
Aug 79
.
’
RADIATION
The DOE, the DOI, and the EPA and their legal counsels agree on the
necessity of determining a U.S. position with respect to the applicability of U.S.
exposure guidance in the Marshall Islands, particularly at Enewetak, and to determine
the extent to which the U.S. has the authority and responsibility to enforce this
guidance. The EPA believes that federal guides to radiation protection apply to the
Marshall Islands people who wantto return to Enewetak, but that, in carrying outits
programs, the DOIcan allow the possibility of occasional individual doses in excess
of 0.5 rem/yr if it has a carefully considered reason for doing so.*°
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