What will the money buy?

By David North

BIKINI is building up its reserves — and is seeking another $300,000,000 from the US Congress to restore the island to its pre-atomic bomb status — but what will the money buy?

The former residents of Bikini want to back to their island home, and want to use their money to remove the nuclear threat to their health that lingers there.

The objective is clear, Congress and the islanders agree but how is this to be accomplished? There are two broad approaches: one is to remove, at great expense, the top soil from the island and replace it with fresh, nuclear-free soil.

The second is to give the entire island a series of sprinklings of potassium.

The second approach relates to the nature of the radiation, and its principal anticipated impact on people living there. The radiation does not do much damage, the experts say, if you stay on the island, and eat canned food from

somewhere else. But if you eat food growth on the island, you will consume a lot of radioactive cesium-137, which is drawn from the soil into the fruits and veget ables.

It • however) possible to block the movement of the cesium-137 into the foodstuff by spreading the potassium, if it is available the plants will pull this harmless commodity into the fruits and vegetables instead of the cesium-137.

The two substances apparently have somewhat similar chemical properties, an d given a choice, the plants prefer

potassium.

T be islanders, however, are not convinced that the potassium solution is an adequate one “they point out that t he rad j a tion is still in the ground, no matter how much potassium is distrib uted,” says Jonathan Weisgall, the islander’s Washington-based lawyer.

The alternative preferred by the island council is to remove the top soil, dump it in the ocean, and replace it with good dirt brought in from somewhere

else. This is not only very expensive, but it runs counter to the anti-nuclear-waste dumping laws and treaties that are currently complicating the former Soviet Union’s attempts to dump nu clear waste in the Sea of Japan, While their leaders are trying to work out this puzzle, the people of Bikini have not returned to their island. (They did so for a few years in the 1970 s when the US government seriously underesti mated the extent of the island’s dangers). Most of them live on the smaller, less attractive island of Kili, where the fishing opportunities are considerably less attractive than they were on Bikini.

Meanwhile, with each passing year, the funds set aside for Bikini must be shared by a constantly growing popu lation, as the Bikinians have one of the world’s highest birthrates. It is esti mated that are now 1500-2000 Bikinians, all descended from the 167 removed from the home island by the US Navy back in 1946. □