21 Feb 1957
The AEC/DBM director recommends the return of the Rongelapese to their home as soon as rehabilitation is completed and the continuation of MEDICAL inspections and RADIATION surveys on the island. He bases his recommendations on projected statistics. Extrapolation of data suggests that gamma doses on Rongelap "would not greatly exceed (if at all)" 0.5 roentgens for the first year and would decline in later years. The director compares these figures to those recommended by the NCRP for adult workers of 0.3 roentgens per week with "a restriction and for population as a whole of a total of 14 million rem per million of population" over the first 30 years of life. He also projects that the average concentration of strontium 90 might be less than 360 Sunshine units and, with the elimination of land crabs, 107 Sunshine units. (A Sunshine unit equals 0.001 of the permissible body burden. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) allows 100 Sunshine units for adult workers.) (131)