Se nme hCGeo Ro The United States conducted 66 atmospheric nuclear weapons tesis in the Marshall islands. Twenty-two years later tne autnorities continue to aisagree on when the islands will be safe for resettlement. GIFF 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 Atol! in the Marshall islands—site of 43 nuclear tests—ihe United States says it is safe for the peopie 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 mart of the atoll. The Marshall Islands are part of a U.N. “‘strategic’” Trust Territory of the Pacific, which has been administered by the United States since World War LH. The nuclear weapons testing pregram 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 euldelines called for residence islands to be cleaned to a level of 40 picccuries of plutonium 239/240 per gram of soil. agriculture islands to §0 picocunes per gram and food gathertng 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 tivolved in the 1950s weapons testing program 4 at Bikini and Enewetak. Edward Martell. of the National Center tor Atmospheric Research. writing to Micronesian Legal Services, a U.S. goverment organization representing the Enewetak people. expressed concer over the “highly questionable recommendations regarding acceptable levels of plutonium in the soils and the very doubtful merits of pro- ceeding with the resettlement of Enewetak Atoll on the basis of the recommendatiens 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 of soil averaged over 15 cm depth. ts suitable for human habitation. can be verv seriously questioned. . . . The resettlement of such sites ts extremelylikely to have tragic consequences, particularly for ers do not substantiate its claims. One of many reports from Enewetak was publicized in an ex- clusive television interview, in which a mechanic stated that he and others had worked without protect- ive gear underneath dozens of trucks returning from the plutonium— contaminated tslands. He said ‘the tires and underside of the vehicles were usually covered with dust and dirt.” but the workers were given no respirators for protection.3 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 respirator 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 atall.’’* Runit Island will be quarantined to the Marshallese forever, because of the younger members of the inhabitants. Progressively worse con- high concentrations of plutonium in aftected population group.”"! each successive generation in the have been encased in a massive cement dome on Runit, to isolate these Martell’s questions and recom- ronment for thousands of years. cleanup ttself was plagued by shoddy miles of Runit have been designated as safe for ‘picnics and food gathering.” This prompted a Mar- sequences are to be expected for mendations Were ignored and the safety standards. The Defense Nuclear Agency maintained that ‘the most important consideration in the cleanup operations 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 cieanap and by independent report- the soil. More than 100.000 cubic yards of radioactive soil and debris hazardous materials from the enviNevertheless, islands within three Shallese 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 atrnosphere of inconsistent safety measures, many of the 450 Enewetak people have