Environmental legacy of nuclear tests on Bikini Atoll

Day: 67 — Position: N17 54’ W164 14’
Odometer since Waikiki: about 2,316M
Distance to Northern Marianas: 1,085M
Sea surface temperature: 82.6F - 28.1C

OCEAN ROWING RECORDS AS RUNNING TOTALS
Solo career total in days by Waikiki: 925 now 992 (New World Record)
Overall career total in days by Waikiki: 1,009 now 1,076 (New World Record)
Solo career total in miles by Waikiki: 22,173M now about 24,325M (New World Record)
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Overall career total in miles by Waikiki: 25,153M now about 27,305M
** Ralph Tuijn (NL) leads this with 35,635M

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Bikini Atoll was just about 370M due south of my Dec 10 position. This was the site of post WW2 and Cold War nuclear tests by the US. The Marshallese were not given any say in the matter, relocated to other atolls that could not support life then had to be moved yet again more than once. The islands of the Bikini Atoll are still not habitable which remains a vexing legacy spanning generations.

A couple weeks ago, I came across the below Twitter posts by U.S. Rep. Katie Porter:

6/26/2021 - “From 1946-1958, the US conducted 67 nuclear weapons tests — equivalent to 1.6 Hiroshima-sized bombs everyday — in the Marshall Islands. We still haven’t told the Marshallese people all that we know about the harm from those tests. It’s past time we deliver justice.”

12/1/2021 - “In the 80’s, the US settled claims that our nuclear tests hurt the Marshallese, and we left the door open to future restitution, if needed. Now we are saying that settlement was final, breaking our agreements and threatening our national security.”

12/1/2021 - “Refusing to address our nuclear legacy in the Marshall Islands is a choice, it’s morally wrong, it violates our international agreements, and it puts our national security at risk. I will continue to urge my colleagues to right this historic injustice.”

I gathered below select excerpts about the recent history of Bikini Atoll from the Wikipedia. Please look it up and read the whole article at your leisure.

Erden

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In 1947, the United States petitioned the United Nations Security Council to designate the islands of Micronesia a United Nations Strategic Trust Territory which was granted by the Security Council. The directive stipulated that the U.S. would "promote the economic advancement and self-sufficiency of the inhabitants" and "protect the inhabitants against the loss of their lands and resources."

Bikini Atoll (Marshallese: 'Pikinni' meaning "coconut place") is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands consisting of 23 islands surrounding a 229.4-square-mile (594.1 km2) central lagoon. Post Second World War, the atoll's inhabitants were forcibly relocated in 1946, after which the islands and lagoon were the site of 23 nuclear test detonations by the United States until 1958. Tests occurred at 7 test sites on the reef itself, on the sea, in the air, and underwater. The test weapons produced a combined fission yield of 42.2 Mt of TNT in explosive power.

Authorities had originally promised the Bikini Atoll's residents that they would be able to return home after the nuclear tests. A majority of the island's family heads agreed to leave the island, and most of the residents were moved to the nearby Rongerik Atoll and later to Kili Island. Both locations proved unsuitable to sustaining life, leaving the residents in a state of starvation, and the United States had to provide them with on-going aid or relocate. Despite the promises made by authorities, nuclear tests rendered Bikini unfit for habitation, contaminating the soil and water, making subsistence farming and fishing too dangerous. The United States later paid the islanders and their descendants $125 million in compensation for damage caused by the nuclear testing program and their displacement from their home island.

The Bikini Atoll is approximately 530 miles (850 km) northwest of the capital Majuro. Three extended families moved back to their home island in 1972 despite the risk, eventually totaling about 100 people. But 10 years later, a team of French scientists found that some wells were too radioactive for use and determined that the pandanus and breadfruit were also dangerous for human consumption. Well water had dangerously high levels of strontium-90 in May 1977, and the residents were carrying abnormally high concentrations of caesium-137 in their bodies. Women were experiencing miscarriages, stillbirths, and genetic abnormalities in their children. The US-administered Strategic Trust Territory decided that the islanders had to be evacuated from the atoll a second time in 1980. The atoll is occasionally visited today by divers and a few scientists, and is occupied by a handful of caretakers.

The leaders of the Bikini community have insisted since the early 1980s that the top 15 inches (38 cm) of soil should be excavated from the entire island. Scientists reply that removing the soil would rid the island of caesium-137, but it would also severely damage the environment, turning the atoll into a virtual wasteland of windswept sand. The Bikini Council has repeatedly contended that removing the topsoil is the only way to guarantee safe living conditions for future generations.

A 1998 IAEA report found that Bikini should not be permanently resettled because of dangerous levels of radiation in the locally produced food. A permanent rehabitation would likely require the use of potassium fertilizer.

The Bikini islanders sued the United States for the first time in 1975, and they demanded a radiological study of the islands. The United States set up The Hawaiian Trust Fund for the People of Bikini in 1975, totaling $3 million. Residents were removed from the island in 1980, and the government added $3 million to the fund and created The Resettlement Trust Fund for the People of Bikini, containing $20 million in 1982. The government added another $90 million to that fund to pay to clean up, reconstruct homes and facilities, and resettle the islanders on Bikini and Eneu islands.

In 1983, the U.S. and the Marshall islanders signed the Compact of Free Association which gave the Marshall Islands independence. The Compact became effective in 1986 and was subsequently modified by the Amended Compact that became effective in 2004. It also established the Nuclear Claims Tribunal, which was given the task of adjudicating compensation for victims and families affected by the nuclear testing program. Section 177 of the compact provided for reparations to the Bikini islanders and other northern atolls for damages. It included $75 million to be paid over 15 years. On March 5, 2001, the Nuclear Claims Tribunal ruled against the United States for damages done to the islands and its people.

The payments began in 1987 with $2.4 million paid annually to the entire Bikini population, while the remaining $2.6 million is paid into The Bikini Claims Trust Fund. This trust is intended to exist in perpetuity and to provide the islanders a 5 % payment from the trust annually. The United States provided $150 million in compensation for damage caused by the nuclear testing program and their displacement from their home island.

By 2001, 70 of the 167 relocated residents were still alive, and the entire population had grown to 2,800. Most of the islanders and their descendants live on Kili, in Majuro, or in the United States. Only a few living people were born on the Bikini Atoll. Most of the younger descendants have never lived there or even visited. The population is growing at a four percent growth rate, so increasing numbers are taking advantage of terms in the Marshall Islands' Compact of Free Association that allow them to obtain jobs in the United States.