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Un MAMAGsa wii: wt) a
"DOR &RCHIVES
BIKINI
CLEANUP
INITIATED
Men and equipment have arrived on Bikini Atoll to begin
the first phase of a project by the U. S. Government to restore the atoll
to a habitable condition
for Bikinians who
wish to return to their former home in the mid-Pacific.
Preliminary survey indicates about six months may be
needed for the cleanup job.
The overall resettlement program
will last about six years as announced by the Department of
the Interior in a press release on January 18, 1969.
The Department of Defense and Atomic Energy Commission
have joined the Department of the Interior in undertaking this
project.
The Bikinians were resettled from the atoll in 1946
before the U. S. nuciear testing program began there.
DOD responsibility will be limited to the cleanup phase
which includes removal of vegetative overgrowth, radioactive
debris and unusable structures; AEC will be responsible for
radiological safety; and Interior will be responsible for
replanting coconut trees, construction of housing and community
facilities and the actual resettlement of the Bikinians.
The initial phase of the project will be to clean up the
islands of Bikini and Enyu, both in the southeast part of the
atoll.
The atoll itself consists of a chain of large and small
islands surrounding an oblong lagoon which measures about 10
by 25 miles.
Bikini Island is about two miles long and Enyu
is Slightly smaller.
The AEC and DOD will jointly fund the FY 1969 cleanup
costs,
each providing $300,000.
The Department of the Interior
has requested an appropriation from Congress for the balance
of funds needed to complete the cleanup in FY 1970 and for
funds to effect the resettlement.
The cost of resettlement of
the Bikini people over a six-year period is estimated at three
Million dollars.
The Department of the Interior estimates that about 550
people have land rights on Bikini.
Of these, some 350 now
live on the isiand of Kili in the southern Marshall Islands.
The resettlement is expected to be gradual, as Bikini's capa- }
bility to suvport its peovle is developed.
Huge bunkers of reinforced concrete must be surveyed for
possible use by the Bikinians or for disposal.
Various badly
rusted steel towers and tangles of cables and girders must be
located,
moved
to the beach
and carried away.
The Defense Atomic Support Agency
(DASA)
has been named
executive agency for DOD participation in the project.
Vice
Admiral L. M. Mustin, DASA Director, is the DOD project manaMost of the men and equipment will be provided by DASA's
ger.
Joint Task Force 8 which is jointly manned by Defense and AEC
personnel and supported by an AEC contractor.
Air Force
Colonel John W. Rawlings, Jr. is in command of the cleanup
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