Letter to R D Copaken, Subject: Atolls of the Northern Marshall Islands Has Been Viewed by the U.s. as Uncontaminated by Radioactive Fallout from the Nuclear Weapons...

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l *9 atolls of the northern Harshall Islands had been vfeued by the United Ueapons testfng le**a and ’1”6tated that I was not auare that the Department of Energy had ever made that stitemmt, TMs does not sem toab:,~::tthe same statement that you attribute to me in your letter, la., the Department of Energy has ,alwajs ~ecogntzed the fact that every atoll In Wfiher, reference to my $titem&t ~abovej outsfde Of the context fn uhfch statement was the flrstbf several st’atemenQ 1 made whfchclarifled that could bedtscerned not only fn’the fglands of the northern Rarshall b- ‘,./“ Eradloloalcal survey of the. rthin%$larshall Islands, with the exceptfonof at present the ffssfon pmductkoti@alnatlon tevels h the northern - . radfonuclfdes from the nucl~r. tes

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you lmpl led that the northern Marshal 1 1s7 antfs were contaminated to & %lgnlficant Wel in lxcess of world wfde fallout Ievelscs although the ‘ term “slgnff$cant” was not de ftned by you. The Mtent to which the fallout levels tn the northern Marshall Islands mayor may not exceed fallout levels on the U.S. sai nland or elsewhere w~ll be better defined when the results of the radiological survey referred to above become available contrfbut~on to fallout levels observed on the islands in the Marshall h’ the U.S. testfng program. In vtew of the fact that Ilterally the entjte globe has been the reclplent of greateror lesser degrees of redfoactfve fallout from the abmspherlc and Chfna, tt would, of course, be inappropriate for any ~sponslble U.S. nated by rad~oactfve fallout from the U.S. nuclear weapons Qastlng.*.m program, as you ca~gorlcally stited In your letter of April 21, 1980s to I trust that thts wfll clartfy the recordthat a) X am not aware of lny such claim befng advocated, and b) that wfth the exception of the %1x .aforementloned atolls there fs at present no reason to Mlieve that ,-current rad~ation contamination levels in the northern Marshall Islands differ very wch fma contarnfnatfon levels in other land areas of the world, such as the U.S. ~fnland, llthough verification of this latter mlntwfll have to awaft the final results of the Northern Hanhall hlands Radlologfcal Sukty; . Thank you for the opportunity to camnent on thls matter. Off ice of Health and