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DAVIO G. BRESS (1908-1976
October 16,
*¢aDMITTED IN NEW YORK ONLY
1980
IRA T. KASDAN
JONATHAN M. WEISGALL
JUDITH ANN JACOBSON
PETER A. CASTIATO
SUSAN BANES HARAIS
EOWARD J. TOLCHIN
WRITER'S DIRECT DIAL NUMBER
(202)
Mr. Hal L. Hollister
Acting Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Research
Office of Assistant Secretary
for Environment
U.S. Department of Energy
EV-3 Forrestal Building
Washington, D.C.
20585
Dear Mr.
637-9104
-
Hollister:
As you may recall from the dose assessment meeting on
Kili last week, Senator Henchi Balos, the Bikinians' elected
representative to the Marshall Island Nitijela, asked DOE
scientists why they now believe that people can live on Eneu
Island in light of the fact that government officials just two
years ago stated that Eneu Island would have to remain offlimits for 20-25 years, due to unexpectedly high levels of
radiation on the island.
You and Dr. Wachholz replied that
DOE had no knowledge of such statements.
Senator Balos was referring to testimony on May 22 and
June 19, 1978 before the House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on the Interior.
At the May 22 hearing, for example,
Ruth Van Cleve, Director of the Office of Territorial Affairs,
stated that her expectation that the Bikinians could be moved
to Eneu had been changed by recently-released DOE data declaring
Eneu off-limits:
"I must tell you ... that we have suddenly
been required to recast our preliminary plans
in a very major way.
The committee will recall
that when we testified before you a month ago,
we anticipated, on the basis of the best information then available to us from the Department
of Energy, that if it were necessary to move
the peovle of Bikini Island to an alternative,