410781 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