XA04N2822 - g INIS-XA-N--250 Bikini Atoll Rehabil won Cornmiffee Report No. 4 Status March 31, 1986 Submitted to the U.S. Congress, House and Senate Committees on Interior Appropriations, pursuant to House Report 99-450 Department of Interior Account No. TT-158OX08, Washington, D.C. BIKINI ATOLL REH.ABILITATION CONSlITTEE REPORT NO. 4 STATUS MARCH 31, 1986 Submitted March 31, 1986 to the U. S. Congress, House and Senate Committees on Interior Appropriations, pursuant to House Report 99-450, Department of Interior Account No. TT-158OX08, Washington, D. C. Copies of this report may be obtained on request from BARC, 1203 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94709 BARC's contractual connection with the Government is through the Depart- ment of Interior, Office of Territorial International Affairs (Contract No. 14-01-0001-85-C-11). 2 ABSTRACT The principal findings of Report No. 4 Bikini Atoll Rehabilita- tion Committee (March 31, 1986) are as follows: (1) On the basis of the Federal protective action guide (ionizing radiation) and an Environmental Assessment, Eneu may be resettled now. (Appendices B, D, E). The calculation of the planning dose for the esti- mation of radiation risk is given in detail. (2) Three principal methods for decontamination control are being studied in field trials at Bikini Atoll -- removal of top soil, treatment with potassium salt, and irrigation with sea water. The latter two, still in an early experimental stage, give promise of being cheaper and ecologically superior to excavation, but the details and limits of their practical appli- cation remain to be established (Appendices A, . (3) The important socioeconomic factors that affect resettlement planning for the Bikinians are reviewed. Prominent among them is a popula- tion growth rate of 5% per annum. Sketch plans to serve as models for the resettlement community are discussed (Appendix E). 3 BIKINI ATOLL REHABILITATION COMMITTEE MEMBERS: HENRY I. KOHN, Ph.D., M.C., Chairman; David Wesley Gaiser Professor Emeritus of Radiation Biology, Harvard Medical School; current address: 1203 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94709 415-526-0141) ARTHUR S. KUBO, Ph.D., M.B.A., P.E., Vice President, Technical Applications, The BDM Corporation, 7915 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, VA 22102 (703-827-7803) FRANK L. PETERSON, Ph.D., Professor of Hydrogeology and Chairman of the Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 808-948-7897) EARL L. STONE, Ph.D., Charles Lathrop Pack Professor Emeritus of Forest Soils, Cornell University; current address: Department of Soil Science, 2169 McCarty Hall, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 904-392-1956) CONSULTANTS AND SUBCONTRACTORS: RONALD FINSTON, Ph.D., Director, Health Physics, 67 Encina Hall, Stanford University, Stanford CA 94305 (415-725-1404) JAMES E. MARAGOS, Ph.D., (Environmental assessment) Chief, Environmental Resources Section, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Pacific Ocean Division, Building T-1, Fort Shafter, Hawaii 96858 808-438-2263) RIVKIN ASSOCIATES (Socioeconomic planning) Malcolm D. Rivkin, 7508 Wis- consin Ave., Bethesda, MD 20814 301-656-5155) WILLIAM L. ROBISON, Ph.D., (Field trials) Section Leader, Terrestrial Atmospheric Sciences, Environmental Sciences Division, Mail Stop L453, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 5507, Livermore, CA 94550 415-422-3884) UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII, Department of Oceanography, Catherine Agegian, Ph.D., Keith E. Chave, Ph.D., University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822 (808-948-6632) 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 3 BARC MEMBERS, CONSULTANTS SUBCONTRACTORS 4 1. INTRODUCTION 7 1.1 Task 7 1.2 Program 8 2. IS ENEU READY FOR RESETTLEMENT IN 1987? 11 2.1 Radiation Dosage 11 2.2 Water 14 3. WHAT IS THE OUTLOOK FOR CONTAMINATION CONTROL 17 ON BIKINI ISLAND? 3.1 Spontaneous physical environmental decay 17 3.2 Excavation 18 3.3 Potassium treatment 19 3.4 Sea-water irrigation 20 3.5 Combined treatment 21 3.6 Cost of implementation 22 3.7 Comparison of options 23 4. WHAT ARE THE MAJOR SOCIOECONOMIC CONCERNS 25 ASSOCIATED WITH RESETTLEMENT? S. THE PRICE IS RIGHT? 31 APPENDICES A. CONTAMINATION CONTROL AND REVEGETATION (FIELD TRIALS) B. WATER SUPPLY C. REHABILITATION COSTS D. RADIATION DOSAGE E. SUMMARY ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE RESETTLEMENT OF ENEU ISLAND F. PRELIMINARY SOCIOECONMIC AD CMMUNITY PLANNING STUDIES 6 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Task The Bikini Atoll Rehabilitation Committee (BARC) was established at the request of Congress (House Report 99-450) to report independently on the feasibility and cost of rehabilitating Bikini Atoll. The reporting is to take the form of defining the problem and describing the practical alternative methods for its solution. BARCIs primary duty, therefore, is to provide information. This progress report covers the period October 1, 1985 - March 31, 1986. It is supported by the FY 1986 budget, which may be spent over 25 years, an extended period considered necessary owing to the nature of cer- tain biological field studies, to be discussed below. The practical application of BARC's findings is to be carried out according to the Memorandum of Understanding (March 13, 1985) between the Government and the Bikinians, which states (Article 1, Section 2 that funds for the resettlement of Bikini Atoll will not be appropriated until: It a. the submission of a final report to the Congress of the United States by the Bikini Atoll Rehabilitation Committee; 11 b. the acceptance by the people of Bikini of the final report and conclusions of the Bikini Atoll Rehabilitation Committee; and 11 C. the development of a plan by the United States, in consulta- tion with the people of Bikini, for the use of the funds to be pro- vided by the United States for the resettlement of Bikini Atoll by the United States in accordance with Article VI of the Compact Section 177 Agreement and approval of the plan by the people of Bikini in the context of their agreement to resettle Bikini Atoll. This plan shall, to the maximum extent relevant and practicable, incorporate material from the final report of the Bikini Atoll Rehabilitation Committee, and the United States shall expeditiously complete the plan following submission of a final report to the Congress of the United States by the Bikini Atoll Rehabilitation Committee." The use of the term "final report" in regard to BARC's mission requires comment. In a conventional sense, final report might not only imply a terminal report, but also the definitive statement. BARC, however, reports its findings whenever they become definitive in order to facili- tate planning, policy making and negotiations. In the present report, 7 for example, we state our findings about Eneu. An additional consideration applies to R&D (research and develop- ment) projects. A particular project can generate new information that might either call for earlier termination than anticipated, or on the other hand, an extension. In the latter case, a report called for by a contract date might be a summary of the results to date, but it could not be "final", i.e., complete. Contamination control as dealt with in this report falls into the R&D category; the final word on the evaluation of the potassium and sea-water methods may take longer than was anticipated. 1.2 Program Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands Republic is located 2500 miles southwest of Hawaii at 11035'N, 1650251E. It comprises a ring of small islands, with a total land area of about 27 sq. miles plus 0.5 sq. miles of intertidal area. Owing to their size and elevation above sea level, two islands are of immediate importance for resettlement: Bikini (.87 sq. miles), the traditional site, and Eneu (.47 sq. miles), an ancillary one. Planning for rehabilitation involves two interdependent tasks. The primary one for present consideration deals with how soil contamination from fallout (cesium-137, strontium-90, and a very small fraction of trans- uranics) chiefly from the 1954 nuclear weapons tests, can be controlled to meet the Federal Protective Action Guides. The second task relates to the civilian needs of resettlement and includes water supply, vegetation and the general area of socioeconomic planning. In this connection it should be noted that while 167 Bikinians left the atoll in 1946 prior to the tests, the population in 1985 was some 1200, about half of which is younger than 15 years. BARCIs work initially consisted of critically reviewing the literature, largely the product of the Environmental Sciences Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and partly that of the Brookhaven National Laboratory. Report No. concluded that about half of Bikini Atoll (including Eneu Island) is not dangerously contaminated. 8 On the other hand, although "residence" on Bikini Island would be permissible, the consumption of its ground water and locally grown food would not. To deal with Bikini Island (and by extension with other contami- nated areas), greatly increased support for the study of three types of contamination control, already considered or initiated by LLNL, was proposed for field trials at the atoll: removal of the top soil in which the radio- nuclides are concentrated (excavation); treatment of soil with potassium salts to block uptake of radionuclides by plants; treatment of soil with sea-water irrigation to block uptake or leach out the contaminants. A number of related technical studies were also proposed. It should be noted that LLNL's own program at Bikini Atoll and that for BARC are now complementary, and their combined results are necessary to meet Congressional needs. Research planning and logistics have been coordinated. BARC now contributes some 40% of the cost of the field trials, and two BARC nembers(Stone, Peterson) have been actively participating in the joint effort. BARC's reports, therefore, include work by the LLNL team funded by DOE as well as by BARC (Appendix A).