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The United States conducted 66 atmospheric nuclear weapons
tests in the Marshall Islands. Twenty-two years later the authorities continue
to disagree on whentheislands will be safe for resettlement.
Gif F JOHNSON
Paradise lost
The U.S. government is now attempting to prove at Enewetak what
it couldn’t at Bikini: that it is possible for people to return safely
to an area devastated by nuclear
weapons. Following completion of a
three-year, $100 million nuclear
cleanup of Enewetak Atoll in the
Marshall Islands—site of 43 nuclear
tests—the United States says it is safe
for the people who were moved out to
return to certain islands. But while
the cleanup has been hailed in some
quarters as a ‘‘remarkable success,”’
controversy is developing over
whether or not people should return
to any part of the atoll.
The Marshall Islands are part of a
U.N. “‘strategic’’ Trust Terntory of
the Pacific. which has been ad-
ministered by the United States
since World War II. The nuclear
weapons testing program ended in
1958, after 12 years of 66 atmospheric tests.
The Defense Nuclear Agency,
coordinator of the cleanup, has said
it would be impossible to lower atoll
radiation to pre-test levels. But the
cleanup guidelines called for residence islands to be cleaned to a
level of 40 picocures of plutonium
239/240 per gram of soil. agriculture
islands to 80 picocunes per gram and
food gathering islands to 160. To ac-
complish this, thousands of cubic
yards of contaminated soil were
scraped off the small islands, mixed
with cement and encased in a massive concrete dome in an atomic
bomb crater at Runit Island.
The basis for the cleanup was
strongly questioned in 1974 by a researcher who had been involved in
the 1950s weapons testing program
24
at Bikini and Enewetak. Edward
Martell. of the National Center for
Atmospheric Research. writing to
Micronesian Legal Services, a U.S.
government organization representing the Enewetak people, expressed
concem over the
“highly questionable recommendations regarding acceptable
levels of plutonium in the soils and
the very doubtful menits ef proceeding with the resettlement of
Enewetak Atoll on the basis of the
recommendations of a Task Group
assembled by the Atomic Energy
Commission and the Department of
Defense... . The recommendation
that plutonium soils, with levels not
exceeding 40 pCi of plutonium 240/
241 per gram ofsoil averaged over 15
cm depth, is suitable for human
habitation, can be very seriously
questioned. . . . The resettlement of
such sites is extremely likely to have
tragic consequences. particularly for
the younger members of the inhabitants. Progressively worse consequences are to be expected for
each successive generation in the
affected population group.”*!
Martell’s questions and recom-
mendations were ignored and the
cleanup itself was plagued by shoddy
safety standards.
The Defense Nuclear Agency
maintained that “‘the most important
consideration in the cleanup opera-
tuons was the radiological] safety of
the individuals involved in the operations.""? But Agency policies have
been inconsistent. and information
supplied by soldiers involved in the
cleanup and by tndependent report-
ers do not substantiate its clams.
One of many reports from
Enewetak was publicized in an exclusive television interview. in
which a mechanic stated that he and
others had worked without protective gear underneath dozens of trucks
returning from the plutonium—-
contaminated islands. He said “the
ures and underside of the vehicles
were usually covered with dust and
dirt,”' but the workers were given no
respirators for protection.?
Press visitors to Enewetak in April
1980 noticed similar flaws in Defense
Nuclear Agency safety standards.
**Standing on any part of Runit Is-
land," said a reporter. ‘‘you must
wear rubber boots and a paper re-
spirator to prevent breathing
plutonium particles. But standing on
the concrete dome (a mere 15 feet
away) you are not required to wear
any protective clothing at all."“4
Runit Island will be quarantined to
the Marshallese forever, because of
high concentrations of plutonium in
the soi!. More than 100,000 cubic
yards of radioactive soil and debns
have been encased in a massive cement dome on Runit, to isolate these
hazardous materials from the envi-
ronmentfor thousands of years.
Nevertheless, islands within three
miles of Runit have been designated
as safe for ‘picnics and food
gathering.’’ This prompted a Marshallese observer to comment:
**What will happen if birds. crabs.
turtles and other animals that land on
the off limits island are eaten by the
people?”
Despite this atmosphere of in-
consistent safety measures. manyof
the 450 Enewetak people have