ACIS ER0
LAES
e Radioactive
by Giff Juhason
he “Year ot the Ammal” is how
5 mans Marshallese describe the
nuclear depacs that has brought
them severely retarded and physically
deformed children. Women on dozens
ofthe tiny istands are plarucd with misvarnaces and babies with birth defects,
bul the t nued States government has
fot taken ans action to study the pos-
Wools’
1946
to
Reongelup Atoll 125 miles east, were
evacuated fram their islunds as a prevaution, On March 1, 1954, the U.S.
detonated Bravo. the largest hydrogen
boinb tested an Bikini. At fifteen mega-
tons. it was P.)Sthtimes bigger than the
Haroshima atomic bamb which killed
100.000 peaple. Why the Rongelap people were not evacuated, or even givenan
offical warning that the test was to take
plice, remains a mystery
Within hours of the March 1 test,
baunouchve fallout reached Rongelap
and nearby Uturik Atoll, By mid-afternoon the fullout was two inches deep on
the ground Not warned of any precautloms to take, the Marshallese were outside as the powonous ash fell on their
wns, feet. and heads Pcople on
Ronpelun began tovomut. and their skin
Weed terribiv, within days burns
appeared on their skin and many lost
some or all of their hair.
human
exposed. Moreover, a little-known 1978
Departmen of Energy, (DOE) study
shows islands in Rongelap have higher
radiation levels than some islands in
Bikini
19458. sixty-six
homb tests at Bikini—-the people from
radiation data on
beings.”
Mansy Rongclapese who had not been
unexposed people eventually became
problems and radiation exposure.
From
logical
on the atoll during the fallout in 1954
returmed in 1957. Living on radioactive
islands and consuming local foads. the
sibility of a connection between these
announced nuclear tests devastated the
peaceful atolls of Bikini and Enewetahk.
whose residents had been moved to
other iiands in the Marshalls. Fortthree tests were conducted at] newetak
and twenty-three at Bikint.
In 1946. priot ta Operation Crosstoads the first series of “smali” atomic
the tslind will afford most valuable eco-
which
have been declared
unlivable for twenty years. Yet thes
have been living on Rongelap since the
PACIFIC
surgery for remuval cf thyroid nouuies,
some cancerous. In 1972, a youth barely
a vear old when exposed in 1954 died of
leukemia. And the health of the people,
instead of improving with time, has
grown worse. A 1977 government study
says: “Recenth about 50 percent of the
exposed Rongelap people showed hypothyroidism ... a finding that probably
portends trouble ahead “
Just three vears after the Bravo test,
the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
said that despite “slight lingering radiation” Rongeiap was sate and its people
could return. A 1957 Brookhaven medical report for the AFC said: “Even
though the radioactive contam.nation
of Rongelap Island ts considered per-
AEC said it was safe in 1957. In early
1979, however. DOE screntists told the
people not to use the highly radioactive
northern islands in their atoll.
Meanwhile, for twenty years the
Uturik people have heard the AEC
doctors tell them that their radiation
exposure was too low to cause harmiul
effects. The Utirik people received less
than one-tenth the dose of the Rongelupese Nevertheless, in 1976, twenty-
two years after their exposure, the
UCurik peopie’s cancer and thyroid
disease rate rose sharply to equal that of
the heavily exposed Rongelap people
The government now confirms that
thyroid cancer is more prevalent in people with lower exposures than those who
were highly exposed. The Uurik people
angrily responded to this development
in a 1976 letter to the AEC, saving the
AEC doctors “look at the people of
Utirik as ifthey were merely animals ina
fectty safe for human habitation, the
levels of activity are higher than those
found in other inhabited locations inthe
world. The habitation of these peuple on
scientilic experiment. The people tee!
that the [medical] program sin need of
Laboratory
Giff Johnson has traveled extensive.s inthe
South Pacthe and Micronesia. and spent
three months inthe Marshall Islands in 1979
ona research (rip, interviewing people from
and Enewetah were affected by the
nuclear testing. An obscure Department
twche at the time of exposure have had
he has written tar the Bullen of the Atomic
Scientists, the Prowresave. and Chessy
Magazine, among others. Since 1°
edited the Mflicronesian Sur
mittee’s quatterls Bulletin
Honolulu.
Brookhaven
National
repoms show that during the first four
vears after Bravo, the exposed Rongelap women had a miscarriage rate twice
that Of unexposed women. Nincteen of
The twenty-two children under the age of
fo
November @ Decem!
3x0
many of the wlainds. A free-lance pournalist,
vast changes.”
For vears the U.S. claimed that only
the atolls of Uurik. Roneclap. Bikini.
of Energy report in 197% said. however.
that in addition to these four atolls,
“eleven other atolls or single islands
received intermediate range fallout from
one or more of the megaton tests.”
One of these atolls ts Ailuk. 250 miles
sast of Bikini, where in a population of