Island near Bikini nuke site OK for habitation: expert

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Island near Bikini nuke site OK for habitation: expert

HIROSHIMA, Feb. 27 (Kyodo) - Radiation levels on deserted Rongelap 
Island near the former U.S. nuclear test site on Bikini Atoll in the 
Pacific have dropped to levels safe for human habitation, a 
researcher said Tuesday. 

Jun Takada of Hiroshima University's Research Institute for Radiation 
Biology and Medicine said his research in 1999 showed levels of 
radiation on the island were lower than those in Tokyo and Hiroshima.

Measurements showed the yearly level of radiation was around 0.2 
millisievert, lower than the maximum of 1 millisievert set by the 
Stockholm-based International Commission on Radiological Protection, 
Takada said. 

The United States exploded a trial hydrogen bomb at the atoll March 
1, 1954, 200 kilometers east of Rongelap Island, exposing islanders 
to high levels of radiation. 

The islanders were evacuated to neighboring islands soon after the 
test but returned three years later. They left again in 1985 after 
radiation-linked illnesses were reported and some 400 islanders still 
hope to return. 

Takada said his research also showed that cesium 137 in the soil was 
at an acceptable level of 26 kilobecquerel per 1 square meter. 

''If I were a Rongelap islander, I would return home with my 
family,'' he said. 

Takada conducted research at 17 locations on the island in July 1999 
and found that alpha, beta and gamma rays all fell below levels in 
downtown Tokyo and Hiroshima. 

Takada, associate professor of the institute, is known for his 
research into radiation levels around Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear 
plant, the site of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986. 

He has also probed radiation levels around the former Semipalatinsk 
nuclear test site in Kazakstan, where the Soviet Union has reportedly 
conducted nearly 500 nuclear tests since 1949. 

At the time of the 1954 test, Japanese tuna fishing boat Fukuryu Maru 
(Lucky Dragon) No. 5 was operating in waters about 50 km northwest of 
Rongelap Island, and the 23 crew members were affected by fallout. 

One of the 23, Aikichi Kuboyama, died six months later of radiation-
linked causes, and is believed to be the first Japanese victim of a 
U.S. nuclear explosion since the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima 
and Nagasaki. 

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Personal Website: http://sandyfl.nukeworker.net
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