RE: We owe it to them... [ Enewetak Atoll ]

["Franta, Jaroslav" <frantaj@aecl.ca>]

Jim,

I note in the article that you posted that the "145 people were relocated
from their
> homes" in 1947 became "Enewetak's 1,500 residents."
> 
Its interesting how the "once-productive fields... of about 40 islands in
...Enewetak Atoll" was for many generations (hundreds of years ?) capable of
sustaining the survival of only 100 - 200 aboriginal people, who after being
moved "125 miles southwest to Ujelang Atoll -- a parched cluster of coral
rubble one-fourth the size of Enewetak" -- and "suffer[ing] grave
privations, including periods of near starvation,'' miraculously grew to
over ten times their original population. 

One visitor told me that its typical for these Pacific Ocean atolls to be
periodically (~ every 100 yrs-or-so) swept clean of almost all life &
vegetation by a passing typhoon -- the only way humans might survive is by
tying themselves to a tree trunk & hope for the best.

Among other things, I find the geological science of atolls interesting -
from their volcanic origin several million years ago, to their eventual &
inevitable erosion & sinking (sub-oceanic surface "guyots") some thousands
of years in the future: on a geological time scale, they are far from
permanent features of planet earth's environment.

Its also interesting to read about the wartime battles on some of these
atolls - US combat of Japanese occupiers - and how these often resulted in
their environment being wrecked well before any bomb testing began. (in most
cases, those "productive fields" were plantations of non-native coconut
palms for copra export - by former German colonials). If I remember
correctly, the battles on Enewetak left behind heaps of rusting war-machine
wreckage, which after being buldozed into the ocean, left behind an
essentially bare landscape not fit for human occupation. 

In Enewetak's case in particular, there is/was also the peculiar problem of
beryllium contamination from a couple of failed tests of the
beryllium-hydride-fueled HEUS (High Energy Upper Stage) rocket. This was
reportedly more difficult to clean up than the radioactive contamination -
which to a large extent took care of itself through decay to stable
isotopes, over the decades since the tests stopped.
Incidentally, the one "island" that really was blown away (by the Mike
hydrogen bomb blast in 1952) was Elugelab. FYI, this was a small, barren
piece of coral sand spit barely protruding above the waves. But the
propaganda would have you believe we lost something like a Hawaii-type
paradise....
>  
Jaro
frantaj@aecl.ca
> ----------
> From: 	Muckerheide[SMTP:muckerheide@mediaone.net]
> Reply To: 	radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
> Sent: 	Tuesday May 09, 2000 9:31 AM
> To: 	Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: 	We owe it to them...
> 
> ...after all it was our dishonesty about radiation risks that kept
> them from being able to return to their homes at conditions of much
> lower exposure than in large areas of the world with high natural
> radiation, and small fractions of routine medical exposures of
> millions of people in the world.
> 
> Regards, Jim
> muckerheide@mediaone.net
> ========================
> May 9, 2000
>  Marshall Islanders Awarded $341M
> 
>  Filed at 2:20 a.m. EDT
>  By The Associated Press
>  HONOLULU (AP) -- In 1947, some 145 people were relocated from their
> homes on a Marshall Island atoll so that the U.S. military could blow
> it to pieces. 
>  When they returned to Enewetak Atoll in 1980, they found that some of
> their land had been vaporized by 43 nuclear blasts, while the rest was
> pockmarked by explosions or contaminated by radiation. 
>  Twenty years later, a claims tribunal has awarded $341 million to
> compensate the survivors and descendants for the lasting damage to
> them and their once-lush homeland. 
>  But collecting it may be the hardest part. 
>  The Marshall Islands Nuclear Claims Tribunal was created through a
> 1983 agreement in which the United States accepted responsibility for
> losses, damages and health problems stemming from its 1946-1958
> nuclear testing program in the Marshalls, about 2,500 miles southwest
> of Hawaii. 
>  The United States earmarked $150 million for compensation and for the
> tribunal to pay claims as it saw fit. After previous personal injury
> payments, only about $4.5 million is left. 
>  The tribunal last month said the federal government should pay
> islanders $199 million for loss of use of Enewetak, $108 million to
> clean up and restore it and $34 million for their 33-year exile and
> hardship. 
>  ``The claimants have suffered damage beyond that which money can
> compensate,'' the three-member tribunal ruled last month. ``While that
> which was lost may be priceless, it does not mean it was without
> value.'' 
>  Enewetak residents said they plan to appeal to Congress next week for
> more funding, said Davor Pevec, their Honolulu-based attorney. 
>  If Congress doesn't pay the award, Enewetak's 1,500 residents said
> they will sue in the U.S. Court of Claims in Washington. 
>  ``We in the United States got clear benefits from the testing
> program,'' Pevec said. ``The Marshall Islanders? They got burdened
> with this residual contamination, with the destruction of their land,
> with their forced relocation.'' 
>  Enewetak Atoll consists of about 40 islands in the northwestern
> corner of the Marshall Islands. From 1946 to 1958, the United States
> conducted 67 atmospheric nuclear tests in the Marshalls. Two-thirds of
> those tests, including the first hydrogen bomb blast in 1952, were in
> Enewetak. 
>  In 1947, the people of Enewetak were taken 125 miles southwest to
> Ujelang Atoll -- a parched cluster of coral rubble one-fourth the size
> of Enewetak -- and told they would be there no more than five years. 
>  The group ``suffered grave privations, including periods of near
> starvation,'' the U.S. Department of Interior wrote in 1976. They also
> received little education and poor health care. 
>  Resettlement occurred in 1980 after a three-year cleanup. Some
> islands were gone, others were pocked with blast craters a mile wide
> and 200 feet deep. 
>  Clearcutting and soil removal lowered islands by several feet.
> Once-productive fields were now a runway, while a 350-foot wide
> concrete dome was built to cover radioactive material. 
>  Both the tribunal and islanders acknowledge the atoll cannot be
> restored to what it was 50 years ago. It should, however, be upgraded
> for ``full and unrestricted use,'' Pevec said. 
>  ``The United States itself made that promise and that promise is an
> obligation.'' 
>  ------ 
>  On the Net: 
>  The tribunal: http://www.tribunal-mh.org 
>  Marshall Islands site: http://www.rmiembassyus.org
> ************************************************************************
> The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
> information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html
> 
************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html