(4)
Bikini Islanders Lose Out Again
GCoatinecd from Gh Foy
died of leukemia, another of cancer of
Atoll, where a colony of Bikuruans had
caused by the Bravofallout.
wide ¢. transportauon lnk to Jaluit
been established as part of the comThumty development project. At first
fe scheme prospered. morale um-
proved and some thought the Bikunlans right learn to adjust to Kal.
Then, late in 1957, and early the
pest year, typhoons sank the copra
boat, destroyed the new agricultural
projects and wrecked the Jaiut colo-
the stomach. believed to have been
Bikini Island, although unoccupied,
was intensely irradiated, a fact which
would have consequences which will
be felx for generations.
The Bravo disaster and the world-
wide publicity given to it played 3
part in the eventual suspension of nuclear testing in 1958—the year of the
23rd and final shot at Bikini—and in
the nucicar test-ban treaty of 1963,
which ended atmosphere testing by
"ter that, according to Tobin, the
_ the United States, Britain and the SoDeart seemed to go outof the exiles.
On March 1, 1954, test shot Bravo,
n H-bomb 750 times more powerful
than the first atorme bomb, was ex-
ploded at Bikini with tragic resulls.
An unpredicted wind shift after the
blast had sent the 20-mile-high cloud
of radioactive parucles drifting in the
wrong direction, across BikimIsiand
and beyond The plumestretched 240
Bules long and 40 mules wide. over an
area far outside the resinicted danger
zone.
.
Rongelap, Rongenk and Ultirik
atolls, all inhabited by Marshallese
and U.S. miltary personnel, were n
Uhe path of the fallout, whuch in some
places fluttered down Lke enowfiakes.
Twenty-eight Amencans, 244 Marshallese and—although it was not
known unl sometime later—23
crewmen of the Japanese fishing boat
Pudcuryu Maru (Lucky Dragon} were
Senously wradciated One crewman
qed of complications. The rest spent
a year m hospitals.
:
The Amencans and Lhe Marshal-
Jese, evacuated and treated in military hospitals almost unmedsatecly, did
fot seem at the time to have suffered
anent harm. No one seems to
what happened to the Amen-
cans. But over the years, 47 of the
Marshallese have developed tnyroid
abacrmalues, seven of them dagn-
ceed as cancerous Thirty-five have
had their thyroids removed. One has
viet Union.
With the end of testing, pressure
Mounted to return the enies to Bikuni.
William Norwood, now living in re-
tirement in Hawaii, served as high
commissioner of the Trust Terntory
from 1966 to 1969.
In a recent interview with The
Times, he said, “We had. of course,
The experts warned
that the coconut crabs
should not be eaten.
—
Snen
“phen under pressure from the Bikint
ors themselves to get them off of
lu They were constantly asking to
be put on some other island. They
hoped first and foremost for Bikini
_.. | remember being introduced to
Chief Juda, who very emotionaly and
Persuasively, and almest tearfully,
leaded with me to either get them
ck lo Bikini or, failing that, to get
them a better place than Kili”
_ Norwood said that about the same
Ume a representative of the Atome
Energy Commussion=he does not re-
call his name—told tum that montoring of Bikim’s radiation ieveis indi-
cated it might now be safc once agun
for permanent reoccupauon.
In May, 1967, some ame after a formal request by Secretary of the ln-
Chief Juda did not live to hear the
news. He had died—shortly before
the Johnson announcement—of cancer, which he believed bad been
caused by his exposure to the first A-
bomb test in 1946. a chum scicntsts
are inclined to discount.
Ironically, especially in view of
what was to be jearned 10 years ister,
Several Bikiruans expressec suspicion
about the food growing on the contamunated atoll dunng a lour of the islands a few weeks afler the Johnson
announcement,
One of the Dlumans, named Jibaj,
even refused Lo touch food from the
atoll, insisung it was porscnous,
Another,
Layo, made 1 forecast
that, from the perspective of 1978,
scems {ar more acute and accurate
than the predictions of any of uie US.
bureaucrats or smenusts. “It will take
radiation levels in the interlor of the
i
‘Were too high to pertmt
le
to bud and live in homes there
“We didn’t really find any surprises
fm that external radiation field,” sad
Tosnmy McCraw. who had been involved in both the 1967 and the 1975
worveys.
However, at the same lime. it was
for the first time that locally grown breadinut and pandanus
~two popular lems of diet—were too
radioacuve to be safely consumed
over the long term. Coconuts, even
ALES
The internal dose had
fisen dramatically between 1974 and 1977.
ELA
more of a slaple in the Jocal diet, were
Teported to be safe.
Then last summer, a Lawrence
Livermore Laboratory study done for
the Energy Research and Develop-
ment Agency, an AEC successor
agency, found Lhat well water on Bihunt exceeded fedcral standards for
radioacuve stronuum 0.
Other levels of radiation on the island were so high, according to the
Teport, that there was lille margin
for safe absorption of any additional
doses from tne food chain.
But, at the same ume. ERDA enVronmental safety official Roger Ray
100 years before the islands are back
tn shape 2
” Tobin reported him
as saying. ”. . . The istands are completely runed now.”
Sull, despite their suspicions and
terlor Stewart Udall, ihe AEC sent a the obvious enormuty of the job. the
team of technotogists to make an in- Biksnans on the tour apparently were
tenave radiological survey of the convinced by the officals and scienUsts that at least the islands of Biukim
atoll.
On Aug. 12, 1968. Prendent John- and Eneu, 10 muics away. could be
son announced that Bikim was safe, made livable.
The Bikinians reported the condi.
that it would be rehabilitated and retions they had seen and the pians that
settled “with all possible dispatch.”
Glenn T. Seaoorg. ALC chairman, were being made for rehabilitation to
explaned that the President's final their fellow islanders on Kil. Oniy
decision had been based on the rec- two or three of the 300 then living
ommendauion of “eight of the most there voted agunst the idea of an
highly quabfied experts available” ef- eventual return to Bikuns.
ter studying the [967 survey results
The cleanup began in February,
and unanimously concluding that Bi- 1969, using some Bikimans on tne
Juni Island and Encu Island, 10 miles work crew. The rest of the renabuliaaway, were radiologicaily safe tion project—piowing up Bikuns and
enough (o allow reestablishment of Eneu Isiands. replanung (hem wich
dhe Bikunians there.
food crops, began later the same year.
few famihes began moving back lo
The experts—ail either AEC em- A ‘snl
ployes or-cmployes of AEC contracBy 1974, the $325,000 cleanup and
tors — warned (hat the coconut crabs
should not be eaten because of their the $3 million renabilitauon program
high content of strontium 90. There ‘was through its first phase. Forty of
were no warnings about anyother lo- the planned & homes had been erectcal foods. They recommended that ed.
Then, as planning for the second
radiological checks be made periodically to detertrune how much radia- phase was begynning, the Bilumans
on the people were being exposed to gad they wanted to locate some of
from external environmentat sources the new siructures in the intenor of
and from their det
theisiand.
said it would be
ture to ay Unat
the Buuruans should be noved.c
their atoll
Y question: Ray told a meeung
of the Buuni-Kiti Counc’ in Mauro
that Brun: Island “should no lon,
be cotundered a permanent wee
ment” and advised that connderauce,
be pven lo moving the settlement to
eu
Mt seemed the scienusis had now
determined that the Bikituans were
absorbing radiauon at a rate substanUally above the federal safety mane
dard of .5 rem per ycar, a measurement of radiauon dosage of any kind
producing biological effects in man.
According to the Deparunent of
Energy (successor to ENIDA) the externai dose on Bikuu Isiand in i977
was 2, the same as in 1974 But the
interna] dose, measured by an m-
strument called tne whole body coun-
ter, had macn dramaucally m three
years—(rom a
reading of O67 in
1974 toa top of
1977.
And the coconut was named as the
radioactive “villain,” since it was the
only locally grown food then bemg
consumed in any quanuly. As one
acentst put it, the coconut palms
were "sopping up” radioacure cepum
17? ind suronuum 90 at 2 muck
greater rate
than anyone predicted.
Please Tura to Page 10, Col. 2
The folowing year, another AEC
radological survey was made, lus
me un more detail It was found that