“0287 7B Bikinians are nuclear nomads becauseof a U.S. bungle By Jonathan M. Weisgail PRY L.A. Times/Washington Post News Service hirty years ago the United States detonated the Bravo hy- drogen bomb teat at tiny Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Bravo, with an explosive force equal to nearly 1,000 Hiroshima-type tive particles. Fallout also showered a Japanese fishing beat that was 80 “there is no reason to expect any permanentafter effects on the gener- The 23 crew members suffered severe radiation sickness, and one died sev- percent of the Rongelapese suffered milea from the point of detonation. en months later. Under a 1947 trusteeship agree- al health of these people.” In fact, 90 skin lesions and loas of hair; many later developed thyroid tumors or 4uR3 — APprse % other radiation-related illnesses, and there has been one leukemia death. — The “unpredicted” wind shift United States agreed to “protect the . ~, atomic bombe, was the largest man- health” of the islands’ inhabitants occurred siz hours before the blast. made explosion in the history of the and to “protect (them) against the According to a recently released reworld, more than twice what its deport by the U.S. Defense Nuclear loss of their lends and resources.” signers expected. It vaporized the But recent disclosures raise serious Agency, the weather review showed entire test island and parte of two queations about U.S. treatment of winds “headed for Rongelap and to others, and sucked them 20 miles. the Marshallese and their lands: the east,” and “it was recognized that . into the air. (two of Bikini’s islands) would be —~ Twelve days after the March 1 Moreover, what wae described falsely ae an “unpredicted” shift in wind sent the fallout eastward over Bikini Island and 240 miles beyond, sprinkling the 236 inhabitants of Rongelap and Utirik with radicac- ment with the United Nations, the explosion the Atomic Energy Com- contaminated.” In other words, the posed to some radioactivity ... all were reported well.” Four months later the commission reported that The Marshaliess submitted a moving petition to the U.N. Trusteeship mission announged that although the islanders were “unexpectedly ez- United States deliberately detonated Bravo knowing that it would cuntaminate land —~ and people. Council in April 1954 “regarding the explosion of lethal weapons within our homeislands.” Marshallese leaders noted that the people of Rongelap and Utirik were suffering from low- ered blood counts, burns, nausea and toss of hair. The explosion set off enormous public debate here and abroad on nuclear testing and fallout. Americans did not understand the magnitude of this new “H-bomb” until President Dwight D. Eisenhower told a newa conference in late March that U.S. scientists were “surprised and astonished” at the results of the Bravotest. At a March 31 press conference, Lewie L. Strauss, Atomio Energy Commission chairman, casually mentioned that the hydrogen bomb could destroy a city the size of New York. By April the White House was receiving more than 100 letters and telegrams each day calling for a stop effort, but without it the Bikinians: would have to wait about 100 years before radiation is at a safe level. | to all atomic testing. Meanwhile, the U.S. and Marshall Eisenhower privately ordered a - Islands governments have negotiated test-ban study, and four years later the United States did impose a moratorium on atmospheric nucleartest- ing. Then in 1963 the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to ban all atmospheric nuclear tests. Sadly, however, due to the Bravo test and 22 others conducted on their islands, the people of Bikini have become nuclear nomads more than 38 years after we “temporarily” evacuated them. An inquiry ordered by Congress and conducted by a panel of leading scientists has tentatively concluded that Bikini can be cleaned up — at a cost of up to $120 million. The administration opposes such an a new political relationship that will provide some compensation to the: islanders, but that also would termi-nate all claims in any way related to” the U.S. nuclear-testing program in’ ~ the Pacific. The United States wants to write a” check and close the books on its nu-* clear legacy in the Pacific, leaving 4 thousand Bikiniana hundreds of miles — and 100 years — away from the home that they left to make room for Bravo. .- Jonathan M. Weisgail, a Washing: ton lawyer, is the legal counsel for’ the peopie of Bikini. — ate _ oe