‘ Ree rtf hgSyAa Army Captain Charles Day, a Defense Nucieor Agency radiation specialist, measures radioactivity at Cactus Crater on Runit Island in Enewetak atoll. In 1958, “Cactus,"'an 18-kiloton nuclear device containing plutonium wos exploded by its triggering mechanism butfoiled to chain rsect. The malfunctioning explosion scattered radioactive piutonium 237 over the entire island, creating 79,000 cubic yards of contominated soil. As SS D> we os 7 r Ay T JNae “Shs 7, part of Enewetek's $20 million cleanup program, the contamineted soil will be mixed with cement and pumped into Cactus Crater, An 18-inch thick concrete cap will then 6c constructed over the crater and the erea will be fenced off. Ruait has been placed “eft limits" for 24,000 years, thepoi lile of plutonium, . leadership in Majuro, the technical inforto their pre-atomic condition is conceded mation creates further doubts and erodes by U.S. officials to be impossible. The the element of trust between the people goal is to allow the peopleto live on their and the U.S. government. ancestral lands safely and without fear of The pattern was set in 1946 when unknown or nonexistant radiation hazards. Bikini was selected as the first atomic The first full-scale steps were taken this -year with the start of a $32 million "bomb test site and the U.S. Navy, which then had. jurisdiction over the atoll, told cleanup and resettlement program at Enewetak and a $2.6 million appropria- the people they had a week to pack. An agreement had been reached with Juda, tion by Congress for an aerial radiological the iroiji (island chief), and confirmed by survey of the atolls in the Northern: Marthe Bikini council that theatoll would be shalls, starting this fall. : . perhaps insurmountable,difficulty. But the intense — and widely pubused for weaponstesting. “We thought that after the testing, ERDA officials have pledged their licized — cleanup program and the unDrees EE RaaeeeRheeee CR eras willingness to make the atolls safe for : Geereee eiprieeescrrStNN “The natives are delighted and enthusiastic resettlement, no matter how long it takes. “vabout the atomic bomb, which has already . “We made a mess there and we ought to “brought them prosperity and a new promstay and clean it up,” said Joe Deal, an ising future,” said a Navy press release. assistant director for health protection i ar A aor ere ce A aaearaaeiid Le ae Ss Reet aaattwee!beeen OAead ETT for ERDA, in a recent interview. Roger Ray, assistant manager for answered medical and -scientific quesif the land was still there we could come environmental safety with ERDA, esti- tions have opened the plight of the atolls back,” said Jamore Aitap, who was 38 mates that language barriers and cultural to worldwide scrutiny. And it seems that years old when he left Bikini. “They differences alone guarantee that complete the more the scientists look at resettledidn't. really say how they were going to do the testing or that the atoll was going resettlement may take manyyears. “We're ment of the atolls, the more problems to be uninhabitable,” he said recently at . making some progress, but it will take a they find. Majuro through an interpreter. “We As these concernsfilter back through gencration before we are understood,” he thought we would be back in a year, various channels to the people of the said. , possibly two.” That was over 30 years ago. Restoration of the Marshall Islands atolls, their councils and the political 18 gumnpses e a 501 319 P by gery and there has been little dispute about the excellent quality of the treatment there. But the medical program has also been an excercise in culture clash and the quarterly medical team visits to the atolls are a constant reminder thatall is not well. , . Fear of radioactivity and uncertainty over future health problems exist at Bikini and Enewetak as well. Resettlement of those atolls has gone on for several years, buthaltingly and with great,