RMI Nuclear Justice Documents

Of 2t Rongelap children under 12 | pied, also took fallout from the March See RADIATION, Ai, Col. 1 According to Interior Department FO} To Fallout From ’54 H-Test RADIATION,From Al . : : 1, 1954, explosion—is too radioactive now for people to live on. Bikini had been declared safe by ON N Where 175 rads was expected to — cause some short-term medical problems, neither that dose nor the much smaller one on Utirik was thought dangerousover the long term. . were dosed with radioactivity in 1954 sure, however, thyroid nodules, both has been closely monitored by U.S. government doctors in the 24 years. Beginning 10 years after the expo- malignant and benign, began turning up among the exposed natives on both since the fallout exposure. atolls. Rongelap, according to scientists, received » total radiation dose of about 175 rads. But since the natives Of 157 people on Utirik at the time Of the fallout, eight have developed thyroid tumors and four of those were lived on the fallout-blanketed island found to be cancerous. —eating and drinking contaminated than those on Rongelap and doctors for more than two days after the test food and water—the inhaled and swallowed radiation doses to bones and or- gans Such as the thyroid were consid- ered much higher. oo : _Utirik, since it was much further The Utirik cases have come later Suspect the lower dose received may take 8 longer time showing an effect. Information on the new cases was disclosed last month when Interior of- icials aske NKgress for an additional $600,000 to compensate the fall- out victims who turn up with tumors. Last year Congress approved a $1,083,000 compensation bill to pay the Rongelap and Utirik Marshallese whoseillnesses had appeared between 1963 and 1976. : In their presentation last month, the officials said two more cases had _ developed on Utirik since 1976. Five more cases are suspectedin na- tives who were on the islands in 1954 ,and who will be examined during a medica] survey beginning this week. In addition, the Interior officials project that 10 to 14 more cases may appear before 1880, when authoriza- _ tion to make compensatory payments © sacle Rc US DOE ARCHIVES comes up again for congressional review, 326 U.S. ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION- Collection Dos|peas Files Box_/> Job 1326 Folder marsha/] Islands Suly= Dee, [F7E *ERE aording to AEC estimates made more than 20 years ago. the Atomic Energy Commission in 1969 and some 100 Bikinians had returned eight years ago. They will have to be movedto anotherisland. The health of the Marshallese who | from the site of the shot, received a much lower dose—about 15 rads, ac GF GE "| 1c . 2. Al :. q i> years of age at thé timeof the explo- officials, doctors in the last 18 months have confirmed seven new thyroid cases in natives who lived on Rongelap and Utirik atoils on March 1, 1954, miles from their homeatolls. exposed to fallout from a U.S. h gen bomb test exploded more than 100 pare. New cases of thyroid abnormalities enntinue to turn up in Marshall Islands natives who 24 years ago Washington Post Staff Writer 7 New ThyroidCases Linked | AL atoll in the South Pacific. The unexpectedly heavy radioactive fallout from the explosion was carried | by winds to Rongelap, 110 miles east - of Bikini. A lesser amount of fallout drifted an additional] 180 mile’ east to Utirik. . Counting the most recent cases, 33 of Rongelap’s2 82 inhabitants at the ploded on the coral reef of Bikini. Five of them havé been ruled can- thyroid problems. rf , . tinle of the fallout have developed whenthe largest U.S. nuclear weapon, a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, was ex- By Walter Pincus cerous and doctors believe many. of the others would have turned malig- tumors or problems, according to an Interior Department official. Thehealth problem of the exposed “sion, 19 have turned up with thyroid ThyroidCases From ’54. H-TestIncrease peoplé on Rongelap and Utirik is but nant had not the victims’ thyroids one aspect of the continulng controbeen strgically removed after the | versy over the lo ng-term effects of rafirst sign of nodules. _ diatioh: Last week, another aspect & the In addition, the youngest:child on problem emerged with disclosure that the island at the time of the fallout ’. Bikini Island—which, though unoccudied of 1 bukemia in 1972. . ] i 1 -— - OVE OC)