(4)
Bikini Islanders Lose Out Again
Gentizued from Mh Page
vide 2. transportation link to Jaluit
Atoll, where a coiony of Bilamans had
deen established as part of the community development project. At first
the scheme prospered, morale improved and some thought the Bukiniang rmght learn to adjust to Kilt
Then, bate in 1957, and early the
next year, typhoons sank the copra
boat. destroyed the new agricultural
projects and wrecked the Jalwitcolo-
By.
After that, according to Tobin, the
Deart seemed Lo go out of the enies.
died of leukemia, another of cancer of
the stomach. believed to have been
caused by the Bravo fallout,
BikinuIstand, although unoccupied,
‘was intensely irradiated, a fact which
would have conscquences which wil
be felt for generations.
The Bravo disaster and the world-
wide publicity given to it played a
part in the eventual suspension of nuclear testing in 1958—1he year of the
2rd and final shot at Dikintand in
the nuclear test-ban ireaty of 1963,
which ended atmosphene testing by
. the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union.
On Mareh 1, 1954, test shot Bravo,
an H-bomb 750 tunes more powerful
than the first atomc bomb, was ex-
ploded at Bikini with tragic results.
An unpredcted wind shift after the
blast had sent the 20-mile-high cloud
of radioactive partcies dniting in the
wrong direcuion, across Bikini Isiand
and beyond The piumestretched 240
gules long and 40 mules wide, over an
area far outside the resiricted danger
sone.
.
Rongelap, Rongenk and Utlrik
atolls, all inhabited by Marshallese
and US. mulitary personnel, were in
Une path of the faiicut, which in some
places fluttered down Lke snowflakes.
Twenty-eight Amencans, 244 Marshallese and~aithough tt was not
known unul sometime later—23
crewmen of the Japanese fishing boat
Fukwyu
(Lucky Dragon) were
yermously radiated One crewman
ded of complicauons. The rest spent
a year in hospitals.
.
The Amencans and Lhe Marshal-
With the end of testing. pressure
Mounted to return the enies to Bikini.
William Norwoed, now living in returement in Hawan, served as high
commissioner of the Trust Terniory
from 1966 to 1969.
In a recent intervew with The
Times, he said, “We had, of course,
SEC
The experts warned
that the coconut crabs
should not be eaten.
SAOETea
“phen under pressure from the Bikim
fers themselves to get them off of
in They were consiantly asking to
be put on some other island. They
hoped first and foremost for Bikini
.. . | remember being introduced to
Chief Juda, who very emotionuly and
persuasively, and almost tearfully,
pleaded with me lo ether get them
ck to Bikini or, fauing that. to get
them a better place than Kil.”
fese, evacuated and treated in milltary hospitals almost immedyicly, did
not seem at the time to have suffered
manent harm. No one seems to
what happened to the Amencans. But over the years. 47 of the
Marshallese have developed thyroid
abocrmaliues, seven of them diagn-
call his name—told tum that mon:oring of Bikina's radiation ievels indiCaled il might now be safe once again
for permanentreoccupation.
bad their thyroids removed. One has
mal request by Secretary of the In-
oped a3 cancerous. Thirty-five have
_ Norwood said that dbout the same
lime a representative of the Atomic
Energy Commussion==he does not re-
In May, 1967, some ume after a for-
terior Stewart Udall, the AEC sent a
team of Lechnologists to make an intensive radiological survey of the
atoll.
On Aug. 12, 1968, President Johnson announced Lhat Bikiny was safe,
Chat 1b would be rehabilitated and resettled “with all possible dispatch,”
Glenn T. Seaoorg, ACC chairman.
explained that the President's finat
decision had heen based on the recommendation of “eight cf the most
highly quaulied experts available” cfter studying the 1967 survey results
and unanimously concluding that Bi-
kunt Istand and Eneu Island. 10 mues
away, were radiologicaily safe
enough lo allow reestablishment of
the Bilunuans there.
The experts—all either AEC employes or employes of AEC contractors —warned (hat the coconut crabs
should nol be eaten because of their
ugh content of strontium 90. There
were no warnings about any ather jocal foods. They recommended that
radiological checks be made penodi-
cally to determune how much radia-
tuon the people were being expased lo
from external ennronmental sources
and from their det
Chief Juda did not live to hear the
news. He had died—-shertly before
the Johnson announcement—of cancer, which he behcved had
caused by his exposure to thefirst A-
bomb test in 1956. a clam scientists
are inclined to discount.
Ironeally, especially in view of
what was to be iearned 10 years Ister.
several Bikiruans expressce suspicion
about the food growing on the contaminated atoll during a tour of the islands a few weeks afler the Johnson
announcement
One of Lhe Ditumans, named Jibay,
even refused to touch food fram the
atoll, insisung it was poiscnous.
Another, Layo, made J forecast
that, from the perspecuve of 1978,
scems far more acute and accurate
than the predictions of any of the U.S.
bureaucrats or smenusis. “It will take
radiation leveis in the interior of the
island were too high to permmt people
to build and live in homes there.
“We didn’t really find any surpnses
fm that external radsation field,” sad
Tommy McCraw, who had been involved in both the 1967 and the 1975
surveys.
However, at the same time. it was
determined for the first time that !acally grown breadfruit and pandanus
—two popular items of diet—were too
radioscuve_to be safely consumed
over the long term. Coconuts, even
een
The internal dose had
risen dramatically between 1974 and 1977.
em
more of a stapie in the local diet, were
to be safe.
Then last summer, a Lawrence
Livermore Laboratory study done for
the Encrgy Research and Develop-
ment Agency, an AEC successor
agency. found that well water on Bu-
huni execeded federal standards for
radioactive stronuum 90.
Other levels of radiauon on the w-
land were so high, according to the
report, that there was lide margin
for safe absorpuon of any additional
doses (rom che food chain.
But, at the same ume, ERDA en-
vronmental safety official Roger Ray
armerae i a on
said it would be
ure to say that
the Bikunians shouldbe movedof
their atoll.
By fall, hough,there do longer
was any quesuon: Ray
a meeting
of the Bikini-Kili Couned in Mayuro
that Bikunt Island “should no longer
be considered a permanent
e~
ment” and advised that connderaucna,
pe piven \o moving the settlement to
et,
It seemed the scentsts had now
determined that the Bikinians were
absorbing radiauon at a rate substaaUally above the fedcraj safely mandard of .5 rem per ycar, a measureMent of radiauon dosage of any kind
producing biclogical effects in man.
According to the Deparument of
Energy (successor to ENDA) the ex-
emai dose on Bikuu Isiand tn 1977
was 2, the same as in 1974 But the
internal dose, measured by an mSrument calied the whale body counter, had nsen dramaucally m three
years—from a
reac:ng of O67 in
1974 to a top of
in 1977.
And the coconut was named as the
Tadioacuve “villain,” since it was ihe
only locally grown food then bemg
consumed im any quanuly. As one
sCienust put it, the coconut paime
Were "sopping up” radioacuve cenum
13? and strontium 90 at 2 much
Seater rate than anyone predicted,
Pisese Turn to Page 10, Col. 2
100 years before the stands are back
im shape again,” Tobin reported him
as saying." . . . The islands are com-
pletely runed now.”
Sul, despite their suspicions and
the obvious enormity of the job. the
Bucinians on the tour apparently were
convinced by the officials and scientists that at least the islands of Bixima
and Ereu, {0 mules away, coud o¢
madelivable.
The Bikinians reported the cond:tons they had seen and the plans (hat
were being made for rehabitauon to
their fellow islanders on Kah. Oniy
two or three of the 300 then fiving
there voted against the idea of an
eventual return to Bikint.
The cieanup began in February,
1969. using some Bikimans on tne
work crew. The rest of the renabiLiadion project—piowing up Bilum and
Eneu Islands. replanung them with
food crops, began !aier the same year.
few famabes began moving bacx to
ni
By 1974, the $225,000 cleanup and
the $3 million rchabiltauon program
was through its first phase. Forty of
the planned 80 homes had been erected
Then, as planning for the second
phase was begining, the Bikunans
said they wanted to locale some of
the new structures in the wnlenorof
the island.
The follomng year, another AEC
tadsological survey was made, tus
ume in more detail it was found that