Letter to W J Stanley, Subject: Examination of the People of Bikini

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BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY Honolulu, Hawaii 96820 FOLDER I want to apologize for the delay in getting this logistic letter off to you concerning the May-June survey, however it seems that the ground rules for this examination are changing daily. I have been mak~requent trips to Washington to speak to the Department of Energy and Department of Interior to try to obtain some commitment as to how we should handle the examination of the people of Bikini. As things stand now, we know that Representative Burton is in the process of writing a bill that will apparently pass through Congress rapidly to present enabling legislation for some unspecified agency to pick Up the medical care of the Bikinians in much the same manner as the people of Rongelap and Utirik. To make the picture even more complex every other day I hear conflicting opinion about a ship load of Bikinians being transported from Kili to Majuro to be present on the island for whole body counting at the same time that the medical team will be there, i.e., May 14 - 20. If this should, in fact, occur it would change the logistic requirements entirely. I have brought this point home on several occasions to Walter Weyzen and to others in Washington and as I understand it, presently the projected transfer of the people of Kili to Majuro is being held in abeyance. As we discussed in Walter’s office I agree with you and Roger that the concept of moving 100 people to a testing machine really is stretching the point. It would be much better to put a whole body counter on Kili for future studies. However, it does appear that we will be responsible for a physical examination of the 60 Bikinians that Tony Greenhouse discovered on Majuro in his last survey. Consequently, as of today, I have changed the composition of our survey group. Please see enclosure 1. I have added Don Paglia, M.D., who I believe you know and has been out before with Bob. He is an excellent hematologist and clinician and will be able to help us in Majuro and Ebeye. Since we will be doing a number of the standard examinations by the protocol, Bill Scott will also be accompanying us for the first half of the trip and he and Don Paglia will return from Kwajalein before we start the outer island survey. At the present time it appears that we will have ten people in the scientific party for the outer islands survey. This will include 3 women and 7 men. As we discussed in Washington, there is the possibility that we might pick up as many as 4 or

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5 patients on the outer islands that will need to be transported back to Kwajalein to be reexamined by Dr. Brown Dobyns prior to transfer to the ~? United States for evaluation and surgery. So that possibly the medical ,,< yJ, party could expand to 14 or 15 people including patients. examination trai~r;~;d—t-h’e-”-s–h~p-”a-nd can figure one trailer as a bunking , ~->” year weyl~-b%–-encountering a considerable amount of rain and that the canvas covering that we have previously discussed will be fabricated and ready to use aboard the ship during the survey. I hope that some restudy of the storage capability of the ship has revealed some new storage areas because our gifts to the outer islands on this survey will be very similar to the last trip. I would greatly appreciate it if we could obtain and carry with us the following gift foods: 10 cases of apples, 10 cases of oranges, 25 cases of diet Cola, 1,500 lb. rice, 360 (1 + lb.) cans of beef stew, 240 cans of SP=, 3 bags of donut mix (5O lb. bags)antid 20 (3 lb.cans) of shortening, 120 cans of baked beans (large) , 18 cases of powdered milk, 6 cases of oat meal, and 300 lbs. of dried beans. In addition, from the standpoint of housekeeping and for the physical examination tables, we will need at least 85 sheets and about 50 towels to be used by the scientific party for berthing and examinations during the outer islands survey. At the present time, Bill Scott is working frantically to make arrangements for the air shippment of our medical equipment. As of today, we have 10 to 12 boxes which we anticipate shipping by commercial air to San Francisco and then transferring to Travis Air Force Base for transportation to Honolulu via MAC. Bill has already talked to Mr. Koga and Louise Sutton about this shippment. Of course it is imperative that this shippment reach Majuro the second week in May since we expect to arrive on the island on May 14th. We would appreciate any help that you could give us on that end ilrexp6ditlng the transfer of the shippment. Peter Heotis and Januk will be going down to Majuro about May 9th to make preliminary arrangements there and to set Up the car rentals. I just finished talking to our Travel Agent here and I have it set up so that I will arrive in Honolulu at about 11:30 PM on the 9th. Would it fit into your schedule if we could meet in your office at about 10:OO AM on the 10th to discuss the possible configuration of the fixed sites on the outer islands and some of the future logistic plans and hopefully to have a period of time with Wayne Monk to talk about the forthcoming trip. I am in the process of getting a letter off to Oscar deBrum to examine the feasibility of holding a village meeting at Majuro prior to the beginning of our survey there. As far as I know, this has never been done before and I think that we might be able to head off some of the problems that we had during the last survey if we had an open question and answer period before we began the examinations. In line with that, since at least half of the questions that come to the medical survey group during those examinations concerns reparations and administrative matters, would it be possible to have a member of your staff available for that village meeting in Majuro on the evening of May 14th7 I think that Harry did a good job of the briefings that we presented together on the outer islands and prob~ly could present any new developments on PL-116.

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Would it be possible to obtain some the port side 20’ deck trailer to use as double tiered bunks to put into a bunking area for the Marshallese Thanks again for your continued support of our logistic needs. I anticipate that this coming survey is going to be a much happier experience for all concerned. I am looking forward to seeing you on the 10th. If there should be any significant change in these plans I’ll notify you immediately by phone or letter.