Enewetak History & Radiological Cleanup

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

Radsafers,

For the record, there are a few publications on the subject of Enewetak.

Here I have typed up some interesting excerpts from the 1981 DNA (Defense
Nuclear Agency) publication, "The Radiological Cleanup of Enewetak Atoll," (
No. 81 8 14 097; 701 pages, plus 20p index & cover).

This DNA publication had the following dedications:

To the People of Enewetak who sacrificed so much on behalf of the peace of
the world and the security of free men everywhere;

To the memory of the six U.S. servicemen who lost their lives at Enewetak
Atoll during the cleanup; and

To the thousands of individuals whose unswerving commitment to the people of
Enewetak and sustained support of the Department of Defense over the eight
years of the project made possible the remarkable success of this great
humanitarian effort.
- - - - - - - - - - -

from the Foreword:

For eight years, from 1972 until 1980, the United States planned and carried
out the radiological cleanup, rehabilitation and resettlement of Enewetak
Atoll in the Marshall Islands. This project represented the fulfillment of a
long-standing moral commitment to the People of Enewetak.
....
The combined effort cost about $100 million and required an on-atoll task
force numbering almost 1,000 people for 3 years, 1977-1980.
(Robert R. Monroe, Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy, Director, DNA)
- - - - - - - - - -
from Description and History: 1526-1972

...before their introduction by German entrepreneurs in the 19th century,
there were few coconut palms growing on the atoll. When they were planted to
become the source of copra, they became the most conspicuous, if not the
most numerous, of the plants to be found on Enewetak.
...
According to their own oral tradition, the dri-Enewetak had always lived on
Enewetak Atoll before their relocation to Ujelang in 1947.
...
Historically, the people of Enewetak have been divided into two separate and
distinct communities which were located on the two largest islands of the
atoll.... One community was situated primarily on Enjebi (Janet) Island on
the northern rim, and the other was located primarily on Enewetak Island
across the lagoon in the south quadrant of the atoll. [about 20 nautical
miles away]
...
Relations between the two communities and the traditional dispersed pattern
of residence were altered with the military invasion of Enewetak Atoll in
1944. Because Enewetak and Enjebi Islands had been devastated by the battle
for the atoll, the U.S. Navy resettled all of the people in a compact
village on small Aomon Island which, as indicated earlier, fell within the
domain of the Enewetak Island chief. After several months, the people of
Enjebi moved to the adjacent Bijire (Tilda) Island which was within the
domain of their own iroij [chief]. With these relocations, the dri-Enjebi
and dri-Enewetak were no longer separated by the atoll's large lagoon; and,
while retaining their dual political structure, they had, in fact, become a
single community.
....
[a population trends graph for 1920-1972 is shown in Figure 1-29. p. 27. It
shows the population of Enewetak numbering almost exactly 100 in the years
prior to the SWW and rising to 142 at the time of the resettlement to
Ujelang Atoll in 1947. By 1972 their number rose to 432, 340 of which
remained on Ujelang. The growth rate has been about 6 percent per year, with
a total of about 1,500 by the year 2000 ]
....
Enewetak was under German Protectorate ("benign control") from 1886 - 1914.
....
At the beginning of the First World War, Japan seized Enewetak, the other
Marshall Islands, and all other German possessions in Micronesia.
When the war was concluded, Japan having been on the side of the victorious
Allies, was awarded the islands lying north of the equator by the Treaty of
Versailles. This was in the form of a mandate to control and develop these
islands, but not to fortify them.
....
Early in World War II, the Japanese set out, contrary to the terms of the
mandate, to make Enewetak Atoll a strategic base in their planned conquest
of the Pacific. 
...
In January 1944, 110 [Japanese] aviation officers and men were billeted on
Enjebi, and 2,686 soldiers were landed on Enewetak to prepare the defense on
the atoll. These were placed on Enjebi, Medren and Enewetak. About 1,000
laborers and other noncombatant personnel were also present.
....
Noting the preparations for battle, the 30 dri-Enewetak inhabitants of
Enjebi moved to islands on the eastern reef.

BATTLE OF ENEWETAK: FEBRUARY 1944

The Marshall Islands operation was code-named "Flintlock" and was under the
overall command of Vice Admiral Raymond A. Spruance. The capture of Enewetak
was considered to be a preliminary step to landing on Truk farther west and
was code-named "Catchpole."
....
The result [of Flintlock] at Kwajalein Atoll was the capture of Roi-Namur in
the north and Kwajalein island in the south, with the loss of 372 killed and
1,582 wounded. The enemy strength was estimated to be 8,675, of which only
265 remained alive to be taken prisoner and, of these, 165 were Korean
laborers. The seizure of Enewetak Atoll was to follow immediately after.
....
All action [on Enewetak] had ceased by the evening of 23 February 1944. The
toll of the battle is shown in Figure 1-34. Only 64 Japanese were taken
prisoner, some of whom were wounded. Most had died fighting. [ Fig. 1-34
gives 2,677 Japanese "killed & burial count," and 195 Americans killed &
missing, with 521 wounded; according to Neal Hines' 1962 book "Proving
Ground," p. 84, "General Yoshima Noshida... had ordered his troops to die in
battle. The capture of Parry and Eniwetok took an additional four days, for
even naval shelling and bombing had not driven the defenders from the
networks of trenches and strong points dug hastily in the shallow sands."]
Fifty dri-Enewetak were found on D+1 by American troops and were sheltered
in a huge bomb crater. Other people found later in the battle were brought
there also, including 17 from Medren. On 24 February 1944, all of the
surviving people were moved to Aomon, where a few houses and some coconut
trees were still standing. The total number of people gathered on Aomon was
117; 18 had been killed during the battle.
....
Little or no attempt was made to clean up the debris resulting from the
invasion. The beaches contained many rusting hulks of landing craft, tanks,
and other vehicles. Ammunition, mortars, and other implements of war
littered the land and the reefs. The coconut trees of the islands, which had
been bombarded and assaulted, were largely destroyed.
...
After the surrender of Japan, all small naval vessels moving through the
Marshalls picked up and carried repatriates back to their home islands.
Those who returned to Enewetak Atoll found that the U.S. military forces had
placed all people from Enjebi and Enewetak Islands on Aomon in the
northeastern part of the atoll chain. The U.S. Navy provided building
construction materials, food, and water.
The dri-Enjebi were not content with dwelling on Aomon because, in spite of
its northern location, it was under the authority of the iroij of the
dri-Enewetak. Consequently, the dri-Enjebi were moved to the neighboring
island of Bijire. Their stay there was also brief due to major events in
other parts of the world.
....
the Navy ...relocated the people of Enewetak to Meik Island in Kwajalein
Atoll while the Bikini tests [ Operation Crossroads, June-July 1946 ] were
being conducted.
....
The agreement establishing the TTPI [ Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands
] as a strategic area trusteeship was approved by the U.N. Security Council
on 2 April 1947 and by President Truman on 18 July 1947.
...
The United States was to take all appropriate measures to advance the
interests of the TTPI and, additionally, the U.S. was authorized to
establish military bases in the TTPI.
...
On 18 October 1947, JTF-7 was activated... to prepare the proving ground and
conduct the next series of nuclear tests, Operation Sandstone. The selection
of Enewetak as a proving ground necessitated the removal of the people once
again, this time to Ujelang Atoll to the southwest of Enewetak. On 21
December 1947, 136 dri-Enewetak were transported to Ujelang to begin their
long residence on that Atoll.
Ujelang lies 124 miles southwest of Enewetak. It had been inhabited by
Marshallese, but a typhoon in the late 1800's swept over the atoll and
killed all but a few of the inhabitants. The survivors moved to the southern
Marshalls, leaving the atoll deserted.
....
Ujelang is much smaller than Enewetak... the land area is 0.67 square miles
or 428 acres, of which only 274 acres are useable. Enewetak has 2.75 total
square miles, or about 1,761 acres of land.
...
The test [ Mike, the first experimental thermonuclear device, Operation Ivy
] occurred on 31 October 1952, and the device... was located on the surface
of Elugelab, one of the most northern islands of the atoll. The yield was
10.4 megatons (MT), equivalent to 10.4 million tons of high
explosives....The island of Elugelab was practically vaporized by the
detonation and in its place was a crater more than a mile in diameter and
200 feet deep [which later filled up with silt; Elugelab (Flora) was
approximately 40 acres in area; subsequently, "three barge shots (were)
conducted in the Mike Crater" - p.353]
....
Seminole, one of the surface shots, removed a good part of Boken (Irene)
Island in much the same manner as Mike removed Elugelab. [about 40 acres of
Boken remains]
....
[In 1958] Koa, 1.37 MT, was carried out on Lidilbut, vaporizing it in the
same manner that Mike had removed Elugelab [ note that Lidilbut is listed in
other publications as Teiter or as Teiteiripucchi, and had an area of about
45 acres, slightly larger than Elugelab; the two were located less than
half-a-mile apart; Neil Hines' 1962 book "Proving Ground" has one photo, on
page 153, showing this northern part of Enewetak after all three tests -
Mike, Koa and Seminole - have been detonated, with both Elugelab and Teiter
gone and a small hole in the middle of Boken; the Mike and Koa craters form
nearly one continuous elongated crater, but are distinguishable on close
examination ]. 

SUMMARY OF TEST EFFECTS [page 55]
... 
a. The islands of Elugelab and Lidilbut [Teiter] were removed, together with
most of Bokaidrikdrik (Helen)[5 acres] and Eleleron (Ruby)[4 acres].
[compare to Enewetak - 322 acres, Enjebi - 291 acres, Medren - 220 acres,
and Aomon - 99 acres; there are 24 other islands with area over 10 acres..]
b. Large craters were formed on the reefs on the north end of Runit, to the
northeast of Bokinwotme (Edna) where Elugelab and Lidilbut had been, and on
Boken...
c. Surface profiles in the vicinity of ground zeroes were changed by blasts
as well as by efforts to restore the area for continued use.
d. Coconut palms and other vegetation were destroyed in many areas.
e. The construction of causeways [connecting the small islands], landfills,
and the excavation of borrow areas in the course of test preparation had
modified the atoll topography.
f. Large structures and bunkers for test measurement or observation remained
after testing was completed.
g. Semipermanent buildings were left standing, especially on the islands of
the southeast.
h. Tons of concrete and metal debris remained.
Conditions that were not readily visible included contaminated soil on many
islands of the atoll and contaminated sediments on the bottom of the lagoon.
The lagoon also contained many miles of cable that had been laid between
islands for instrumentation, communication, and the activation of the
nuclear devices.
The principal radioisotopes that made up the residual radioactivity on
Enewetak Atoll following the test period
were...Cobalt-60....Strontium-90...Cesium-137...Plutonium-239....Plutonium-2
40...Americium-241.
....
During the time that the atoll was under the control of the U.S. Air Force,
two test firings of a developmental HEUS [High Energy Upper Stage] rocket
motor were conducted. One was conducted in 1968 and the other in 1970, both
on Enjebi. The rocket motors tested each contained 2,500 pounds of
propellant of which 300 pounds was beryllium. The first firing, in April
1968, resulted in a high-order detonation which scattered propellant over
the western tip of Enjebi.
...
A second firing in January 1970 was successful and did not result in an
explosion.
...
Sampling after decontamination showed the cleaning operation to be "quite
successful" or "reasonably successful," the beryllium content of the soil
being, in many cases, less than the contamination that was present before
the second test.
... Soil sample analysis showed no surface contamination greater than 0.05
microgram of beryllium per gram of dry soil.[ results of U.S.A.F.
Environmental Health Laboratory were published in Report Number 71M-2 ]
....
The Task Group Report pointed out [19 June, 1974] that the tasks required
for Enewetak were similar to those carried out for the Bikini cleanup and
rehabilitation, and it stated that its recommendations for Enewetak were
therefore similar to those that guided cleanup and rehabilitation of Bikini
Atoll.
...
[the AEC Task Group Report dose guidelines for Enewetak Atoll are given in
Fig. 2-1, page 85; they are in rem/year units - 0.25 whole body, 0.75 bone,
0.25 bone marrow, 0.75 thyroid, and a 30-year 4 rem limit for the gonads.
"They are derived from the Federal Radiation Council (FRC) Radiation
Protection Guides (RPG) by using 50 percent of the FRC RPG for individual
exposure and 80 percent of the FRC RPG guide for gonadal exposure. These
reduced values are recommended as a necessary precaution to allow for
uncertainty in prediction of annual exposures to individuals in the
alternative programs."]
....
(p.499) ...tropical storms and typhoons are common occurrences in the
Enewetak area. Approximately $591.3 thousand were absorbed in MILCON funds
to remedy or ameliorate the effects of Typhoons Mary, Rita, and Alice, and
Tropical Storm Nadine.
...(p.347) [ Typhoon Rita ] storm center passing approximately 15 miles
north of the island [Lojwa] at 1945 hours, 19 October 1978...There were no
personnel injuries at Enewetak from Typhoon Rita, which later claimed over
200 lives in the Philippine Islands.
...Typhoon Alice struck the atoll the morning of 5 January 1979 with
devastating force.... Surf broke over much of the island, rolling stones as
large as basketballs across the island from the ocean side to the lagoon.
Water 4 feet deep flowed through the Mid-Pacific Research Laboratory area.
Sections of road were washed out on the lagoon side of Enewetak Island and
in the industrial area. Winds blew down the old water tower and ripped large
sections of sheet metal from the roofs and walls of many of the buildings.
The dry stores warehouse (Bldg 37), new reefer bank (Bldg 544), and the
"White House" female/guest quarters (Bldg 676) were totally demolished....
Damage at Enewetak Camp was massive. Life-support systems were out with no
power and no water pressure.
....
(p. 400) The table at Figure 7-53 displays the final DOE-ERSP
characterization of the islands requiring soil cleanup, exclusive of Runit,
as well as all islands meeting the required criteria without cleanup. [the
main islands of Enewetak and Medren have a Final Soil Survey Isle Avg pCi/g
of 0.5 and 0.3 respectively, while Aomon has 7.5, Enjebi has 20 and Japtan
has 0.2]
...
[ the crater left from the Cactus shot on Runit Island was used for the
disposal of 104,097 cubic yards of contaminated material, including soil,
from Runit and five other islands - more than half from Enjebi; it was
surrounded by a two-foot thick concrete keywall sunk eight feet below the
adjacent surface, and capped off with a 430-foot diameter, one-and-a-half
foot thick concrete dome protruding 30 feet over the surrounding landscape;
contaminated material was prepared for disposal in a slurry and soil-cement
mixture] The mixture adopted by Field Command for tremie slurry was three
bags of cement and one-half bag (50 pounds) of attapulgite per cubic yard of
mix. For soil-cement mixture, two bags of cement were to be used for each
cubic yard of soil. (p. 414)
...
THE ENEWETAK REHABILITATION PROGRAM 1972 - 1980
(chapter 10, p. 501)
...At the time that the DNA was tasked to make the islands safe, the
Department of the Interior (DOI) was assigned the responsibility of making
them habitable by constructing village communities and by planting
commercial and subsistence crops.
... Responsibility for detailed planning and accomplishment of the
Rehabilitation Program was delegated by DOI to the TTPI which, in turn,
assigned the responsibility to its District Administrator for the Marshall
Islands (DISTADMI), Mr. Oscar DeBrum.....Mr. Carlton Hawpe, Majuro architect
who knew the Marshallese language and people, provided architect and
consultant services under subcontract to H&N [Holmes & Narver Inc.].....In
July 1973, Mr. Hawpe, accompanied by other agency representatives, met with
the dri-Enewetak on Ujelang Atoll to develop the basic concepts for the
future Enewetak Atoll communities... The Planning Council tried to develop a
two-community concept which would retain the traditional
dri-Enjebi/dri-Enewetak divisions of land.
....(p.514) In January 1978, the contract for rehabilitation program
construction was awarded to American International Constructors, Inc.,
Pacific (AIC) of Seattle, Washington.
...Construction of seven model homes on Enewetak Island began on 19 July
1978.[six different house models, totaling 116 houses, were constructed by
1980]
...
(p.532) The discovery in early 1978 that the Bikinians were experiencing
unexpectedly high intakes of strontium and cesium from eating locally grown
coconuts and other foods was disturbing to the agencies involved in the
Enewetak Rehabilitation Program. The levels were attributable to the
Bikinians drinking and eating more coconut than predicted in the diet on
which the Bikini Atoll cleanup and resettlement was based. The Enewetak
cleanup and rehabilitation plans were based on the same diet assumptions and
on planting coconuts on six northern islands where fission products also
were found in measurable concentrations. The Bikini experience cast a shadow
of doubt on the Enewetak diet model, predicted exposure levels, and island
use plans....Cleanup of fission products on any island was excluded in the
EIS [in contrast to plutonium cleanup], as this would require excessive soil
removal.
...On 29 September 1978, DOE formally recommended that no coconuts be
planted on the northern islands during the next planting season
(May-December 1979)....The study indicated that, while strontium and cesium
levels on some of the six islands... would diminish within 8 years to levels
commonly found in the continental  United States (CONUS), it would take over
135 years for others... to reach those levels..... Under drought and/or
starvation conditions, such as had occurred at Bikini, coconut consumption
could increase to 40 to 60 per person per day. To provide an average of
eight coconuts per day for 700 persons, it was estimated that between 20,440
and 40,880 trees would be required....On 21 September 1979, DOI directed H&N
to proceed with the planting of the northern islands [ where none of the
coconuts was to be used for food].... The study concluded that optimum
subsistence coconut productions on the four southern islands could be
achieved by planting 20,880 standard trees on 30-foot centers...[plus] 930
dwarf coconut trees...[for] a total of 21,810 trees...
.....(p.541) Following the dose assessment conference... the report strongly
supported the return of the dri-Enewetak to their homeland, which already
had begun with the establishment of the Japtan settlement in March 1977.
....
ENEWETAK RETURN CEREMONY (p. 547)
...The ceremonies, on 8 April 1980, included presentation of two inscribed
bells donated by the Cleanup Project and Rehabilitation Program personnel
for the church towers at Medren and Enewetak... remarks by distinguished
representatives of the U.S. Government, the GMI [Gov't of the Marshall
Islands] and the Enewetak people... signing of a proclamation... and a
celebration supper. Ceremonial songs and dances to mark the occasion were
performed by the Enewetak people. Gifts were provided to the people through
the Navy's Project Handclasp, and gifts of food were provided to the people
by DNA.....Most of the dri-Enewetak attendees returned to Ujelang on 9 and
11 April, leaving 152 permanent dri-Enewetak residents on Japtan and
Enewetak pending completion of actions by DOI/TTPI to complete the
settlement of all who wished to live at Enewetak.... At the end of the
original trial period [October 1980], many people were still undecided about
where to establish permanent residence. No one was living on Japtan but the
communities on Medren and Enewetak Islands appeared well established. [the
people met on New Year's to discuss resettlement and] decided to extend the
trial period another 90 days.... For the first time in 33 years, Enewetak
Atoll was becoming again the homeland its people had known and loved.  

<><><><><><><><><><><>

Comment: Its interesting to compare the compensation claims for the atolls
to such things as compensation for land expropriation for airports,
highways, etc., or to the purchase of Alaska from Russia (especially if you
compare the land areas involved).
Also interesting that, by comparison, the French did not have to compensate
anyone at Mururoa, since that atoll (and Fangataufa) were uninhabited to
begin with -- too bad the U.S. Gov't didn't pick an uninhabited atoll
(Ujelang ?). Could have saved themselves loads of trouble...

Jaro
frantaj@aecl.ca

  

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