The U.S. government recently made an ultimatum to former residents of Rongelap Island of the Rongelap Atoll: move back home by 2011 or we'll refuse to fund support for your exiled community.

Rongelap is the largest island (0.3 square miles) in the Rongelap Atoll in the Pacific, which comprises 61 islets and is some 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii.  The atoll is the second closest system of islets (by about 110 miles to the east) of the ground zero at Bikini Atoll, which was one of the locations comprising the U.S. Pacific Proving Grounds where aboveground U.S. nuclear tests were conducted during the 1940s and 1950s.  (The Bikini Atoll was the 'inspiration' for the name of the swimming clothing item, the 'bikini.')  

Bikini Atoll was host to 23 atmospheric nuclear blasts from 1946 to 1958, most of them thermonuclear (hydrogen) including 'Shot Bravo,' one of the largest nuclear tests ever on Earth, conducted on March 1, 1954.  That day, beginning about four or five hours after the 15-megaton Bravo test was detonated, Rongelap Island was showered in fallout.  (The northern parts of Rongelap Atoll received the greatest brunt of the immediate fallout from Bravo - in the Rongelap Reassessment Project Final Report submitted to Congress, completed by Dr. Henry I. Kohn, who reviewed a DOE 1982 radiation study on behalf of the Atolls' exiled residents, Kohn noted that 'no islands be inhabited north of Borukka and Eniaetok.' This excludes about 75% of the Atoll from human inhabitation. (see plutonium and strontium sections below)

Rongelap Island was covered with a layer of radioactive fallout up to 1 1/2 inches thick, and residents, called 'Rongelap Islanders' or 'Rongelapese,' thought it was snow; some child played in the toxic residue.  Rongalepese immediately began suffering from acute radiation poisoning - most became violently ill, suffered hair loss, beta burns, and, since they had received no instructions on how to protect themselves, they ate foods that were dusted with fallout - ...but weren't evacuated by U.S. Navy ships until 50 hours after the fallout began (on March 3).  According to the Greenpeace Book of The Nuclear Age [1989], ships evacuated a total of "236 islanders and 28 American service personnel to the navy base on the nearby island of Kwajalein."¹  

Astonishingly, the Rongelapese were not once but twice denied escape via U.S. military ships during those first 50 hours.  According to Holly M. Barker, who contributed a chapter in the book Half-Lives & Half Truths: Confronting the Radioactive Legacies of the Cold War [edited by Rose Barbara Johnston, SAR Press, 2007], "During the Bravo detonation, a U.S. naval ship was anchored off the reef of Rongelap.  When radioactive fallout from Bravo moved toward Rongelap, the boat chugged off, taking the US servicemen to safety but leaving the Marshallese behind in their highly contaminated environment." [p. 220] The second denied opportunity, according to Greenpeace, came "On the day after the blast, [when] Americans wearing protective suits came to the island. They took readings with a Geiger counter from two wells and left after 20 minutes, without saying a word, according to the islanders."  It appears there was a third missed evacuation: 28 American service personnel on nearby Rongerik Atoll were rescued 34 hours after Bravo whereas the Rongelapese had to wait until 50 hours post-shot.  

A very disturbing  part of the story is that Rongelapese were evacuated in the past.  During 'Operation Crossroads,' the code name for the first nuclear tests in the Pacific in 1946, Rongelapese were moved to a tent camp on Lae Atoll for about three months.  

From Kwajalein Atoll (Ebeye Island), where islanders were treated at a U.S. medical facility and more or less quarantined from their 'non exposed' relatives, the residents of Rongelap and Utirik were moved in June 1954 to Ejet (Ejit) Island in the Majuro Atoll, a previously uninhabited atoll.  

The residents were told by U.S. authorities (DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory) in the summer of 1957 that Rongelap Island was now 'safe' '...in spite of slight lingering radiation' and 250 persons returned to Rongelap island².  Yet the island was still 'hot' -  food radiation levels were greater than deemed acceptable for U.S. citizens and the island was more radioactive than most places on the planet with gamma dose rates of 270 mRem/year.  Why were they lied to?  Some say it was part of a secret plan to study the Rongelapese as guinea pigs exposed to radiation: a confidential internal memo in 1957 by a Brookhaven National Laboratory head researcher, Dr. Robert Conard, reads: "The habitation of these people on the island will afford most valuable ecological radiation data on human beings...various radioisotopes present can be traced from the soil, through the food chain, and into the human beings."   The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Phillip Muller, told a combined hearing of two U.S. House subcommittees of the Committees on International Relations and Resources in September 1996 that residents of Rongelap and Enewetak atolls were used in U.S. human radiation experiments.  Muller noted that 'Marshallese subjects were sent to universities and laboratories throughout the United States for undisclosed medical procedures' such as 'tritium water and chromium-51 injection experiments'...'thyroid experiments'...'genetic experiments'....and 'radium inhalation experiments and bone marrow transplants.'  Because 'Marshallese citizens were dispersed in U.S. facilities throughout the United States,' Muller said that he could 'think of no logical reason for dispersing Marshallese subjects to so many different U.S. facilities, unless it was to participate in each institutions' experimentation projects.'³ 

Over the following decades, fear among the Rongelapese resurfaced when illnesses began showing up in the community.  As Kohn writes, 'The occurrence of thyroid disease as well as a case of acute leukemia worried the Rongelap people.'  The Rongelapese asked for an independent health review, which the DOE didn't do but did initiate a 'comprehensive dosimetry review' and aerial radiological surveys that were summarized - along with dose estimates - in a 1982 report.  That report, which was based on 'meager sampling' (Kohn), according to the Delegate from the U.S. Virgin Islands to the U.S. House, Ron de Lugo, 'indicated high levels of radiation contamination throughout Rongelap Atoll as of 1978...[and] greatly alarmed the Rongelap people.'⁴  In 1983 the Parliament of the Marshall Islands urged the U.S. government to evacuate the Rongalepese.  One May 22, 1985, after their pleas were ignored by the U.S. government, the group Greenpeace transported 320 people including 70 original islanders - over four trips - to Mejatto Island in Kwajalein Atoll (about 111 miles due south of Rongelap Atoll). 

Mejatto, however, is a 1-mile long barren island at the western edge of the Kwajalein Atoll.  It had no infrastructure and 'the nearest island where food and other supplies can be purchased is Ebeye, which is about 8 hours by small boat.'⁴ Rongalepese eventually managed to grow plant crops on Mejatto after about five years of effort. According to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL) Marshall Islands Dose Assessment and Radioecology Program (MIDARP), "The people of Rongelap are still resident on Mejatto today although parts of the community have split off to live on Ebeye Island (Kwajalein Atoll) and Majuro Atoll."  Holly Barker writes in her book Bravo for the Marshallese: Regaining Control in a Post-Nuclear, Post-Colonial World [Wadsworth 2004] that after moving to Mejatto, 'Eventually the community dispersed to the two urban centers or Majuro, and Ebeye, and to other locations.' [p.67]  

Barker notes that even their exiled community of Mejatto, and many other Marshallese communities that are not part of the four atolls, (Bikini,. Enewetak, Rongelap and Utrik) that were evacuated, were impacted by dangerous fallout.  She notes 'The RMI government has conclusive documentary evidence that atolls previously considered "unexposed" to radiation, atolls such as Ailuk, Likiep, Wotho, Mejit, and Kwajalein, received dangerous levels of radiation." [p.39] 

Move or starve

Now, members of the U.S. Congress are getting impatient with the 'resettlement' and are pushing for a deadline of 2011. Six U.S. senators and representatives asked the Interior Department in an October 2009 letter to withhold some funds⁹ to the Rongelap Atoll Local Government for the current fiscal year until they see a report on the resettlement.  Meanwhile, a U.S.-created $45 million trust fund - put into effect in 1996 - has helped the Rongelap local government pay for cleanup and rehabilitation of Rongelap Island, including a power generator and water-making equipment.  According to MIDARP, Rongelap "now boasts a host of modern-day facilities including electrical power, a freshwater supply, a modern field station, paved runway, a number of bungalows for accomodating [sic] tourists and other visitors to the island, a whole-body counting facility and adjoining health physics laboratory, and a large concrete pier."  (Most of these expenses are paid by the U.S. government.  A 1996 agreement stipualtes that the U.S. will assist in the resettlement of the island including 'the building of sufficient homes after construction of dock, water, electric, school, and local government facilities; property will be surveyed, and cemeteries located. ')

Rongelap's government has paid for a contractor (one of them was Pacific International, Inc.) to remove the top 15 centimeters of soil around houses and community buildings prior to construction of new buildings and this will, per the DOE "reduce external exposure where people spend most of their time... "  Also, the soil has been replaced by crushed coral, again to minimize Cs137 gamma exposure, and potassium fertilizer has been added to food crop and coconut tree areas.   These actions seem to be the result of recommendations made by the DOE and scientists contracted by the Rongelapese.  

DOE's assessment

On February 11, 2020, the DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) issued a press release stating that residents, in their 'new' island, "could have lower radioactive levels than the average background dose for residents in the United States and Europe."  What they mean is that: 

natural background dose +  the contamination from Rongelap < usual background dose in the United States or Europe.

But that is a half-truth and based on several modeling-based miracle measures:

• First, scientists with LLNL believe that from heavy rainfall, some soluble ¹³⁷Cs has been pushed to several feet below the soil surface out of reach of roots of growing vegetation on the island.
• Second, LLNL argues that whatever cesium-137 is available for food uptake will be blocked by coating the 'food crops with potassium.'  Cesium-137 is problematic in the body because it resembles potassium, which our bodies need.  (Same for Iodine-131, which resembles natural iodine.  You've heard about iodine pills?  You take them when a nuclear power plant melts down or in a nuclear war.  Well, the same goes for potassium.)  You take potassium to stop your body from taking in Cesium-137, which is chemically similar.  The same goes for plants.  By over-dosing the plants with potassium chloride fertilizer (KCI), hopefully they won't absorb the Cs-137.   LLNL argues that this will make foods 95% less radioactive, in terms of Cs-137 ("to about 5 percent of pretreatment concentrations") although MIDARP states "It is expected that addition of potassium fertilizer on Rongelap Island will reduce the ingestion dose from cesium-137 to about 30 % of the pretreatment level..."[website accessed on March 4, 2010]
• LLNL notes in In-Situ Gamma Spectrometric Measurements around the Service and Village Area on Rongelap Island by Terry Hamilton et. al., April 2001 [UCRL-ID-143680-Pt-1] that over 90% of the Cs137 is in the top 10 inches [25 cm] and that the 'overall goal was to reduce the external Cs137 gamma exposure rate to or less than" 0.17 microRems/hr.  

Regrettably, LLNL doesn't consider that Rongelap Islanders...

• may want to visit, or gather foods, on other islands in the Rongelap Atoll, as they have done in the past, but those islands were NOT decontaminated - Ron de Lugo: "Life to the people of the Marshalls is not confined to one island, but rather to the series of small islands that make up the atoll. Traditional food gathering, residence and fishing have taken place throughout Rongelap Atoll. If the Rongelap people are to return to Rongelap Atoll, then they are entitled to the use of the entire atoll. We have an obligation to fully disclose the entire atoll's status and condition to the Rongelap people."⁴
• may want to visit, or gather foods, play in, hang around, and walk over soils that are not "around houses and community buildings."  Are Rongelap Islanders under community arrest?
• may want to, or need to, live on other islets: 'the population has grown significantly, meaning they need to use more islands to comfortably resettle' [RONGELAP ISLANDERS LOATH TO RETURN TO NUKED HOME, Giff Johnson, Mariana Variety, 3.2.2010]
• are forced to rely on tri-annual ships that [will] come and bring them imported food.  If the ship is late, they are forced to "eat off the land," which is poisoned.
• may be affected by global warming-related ocean rise, typhoon-related flooding , etc.. that can wash away the crushed coral layers, and move around radioactive sediments, including in food-growing or community-living areas.

The other radionuclides

LLNL doesn't realistically consider that there are other long-life radionuclides from fallout that pose a danger to health and life: these include Strontium-90, Plutonium-239 and -240, Americium-241, Zirconium-95, and over a dozen others.

LLNL's February 2010 press release states that "...isotopes of strontium, plutonium and americium account for less than 5 percent of the estimated dose."  

This is VERY dubious.  LLNL may be right that Cs137 uptake in atoll soils is high whereas uptake is low for Sr90 but ignoring everything but radiocesium is foolhardy and irresponsible.  LLNL notes in their paper The effective and environmental half-life of ¹³⁷Cs at Coral Islands at the former US nuclear test site [Journal of Environmental Radioactivity Volume 69, Issue 3, 2003, Pages 207-223] that "The rate of the environmental loss of ⁹⁰Sr is unknown but does occur along with ¹³⁷Cs."  They actually don't have the foggiest idea of how much Strontium-90 is in the soils now, what it will do to the crops, and then to the people.

The 1978 soil samples

As part of the Northern Marshall Islands Survey (that included Rongelap Atoll) of 1978 by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Robison et. al., 1982), which comprised gamma ray surveys, the lab project added soil, water, vegetation and fish samples; soil samples were taken 'from some 25 scattered locations on Rongelap Island whose averages (picocuries/gram) for 0-10 cm depth were: cesium-137, 12; strontium-90, 7.1; plutonium-239, -240, 2.6; americium-241, 0.9 (Table 3 #2). These 1978 levels were about twice those for Eneu, Bikini Atoll.'  (Kohn p. 19) 

We examine this 1978 data in detail below.

PLUTONIUM

The sampling indicated that the soils (after 18 samples) on Rongelap had plutonium-239 levels of 0.07 to 3.2 picoCuries per gram (in dry soil) in the top 40 centimeters.

If we consider that plutonium-239 on Rongelap hasn't decayed by any significant degree since 1978, then we can see that the soils are more radioactive than the part of the Nevada Test Site just a few miles from Yucca Flat where a 700-ton ANFO bomb called DIVINE STRAKE was proposed in 2006 and 2007 but was cancelled because of public fears of lofting radiation. 

The soil near the ground-zero for the Divine Strake experiment at the Nevada Test Site was tested in late 2006 and the 25 samples ranged in measurements from 0.002 to 11.1 pCi/g, and had an average of 1.707 pCi/g (0.002 0.077 0.253 0.27 0.37 0.48 0.48 0.51 0.52 0.57 0.63 0.66 0.7 0.7 0.78 1.12 1.25 1.28 1.33 1.99 2.38 2.42 4.5 8.3 11.1).  [Draft December 2006 Revised Environmental Assessment, Large Scale, Open-Air Explosive Detonation DIVINE STRAKE at the Nevada Test Site, Table 3-2]  The samples were taken from "0 to 0.5 ft bgs" (or 5-6 inches) in an area of over 3 million square feet that would have been either ejected by or disturbed by the shock wave of the Divine Strake blast.  

The surface soil levels of plutonium-239/240 on Rongelap that weren't scraped off and hauled away - meaning most of the islet - are twice the mean average of the plutonium-laced soils surrounding the 2006 ground-zero location of the Divine Strake test.   (It is only fair to state, however, that the Divine Strake samples were for plutonium 239 and we are comparing these values to combined plutonium-239/240 values on Rongelap.  The middle range of pu240/239 ratios on Rongelap is 0.15 or 0.2.)

The areas of Rongelap Island that weren't scraped away pose a danger from plutonium to health; but the DOE says that resuspension of alpha particles (Pu239, Pu240 and Am241) 'are not expected to be a significant contributor to the annual effective dose' and the crushed layer of coral around the village 'will help minimize any potential exposures...'   DOE's assessent flies in the face of common knowledge that it only takes one speck of plutonium in the lungs to induce cancer!

For the 1982 study, the DOE also took samples on other islands in the Rongelap Atoll.   (Interestingly, all soil data from the nearest island to Rongelap, Arbar, was rejected because the wet chemistry analyses didn't meet quality control.  Resampling and re-prepping of samples didn't occur.  They were just eliminated.) Other atoll islands showed high concentrations of Pu239+Pu240⁶:     

So, the 1982 study was a 'characterization study' that would be used to 'determine whether or not further detailed sampling effort might be required at any of the atolls.' [Introduction to part 4]⁷  Subsequently, from 1986 to 1992, the DOE collected data from an 'update' study.  That was completed in 1994 and titled An Updated Dose Assessment for Rongelap Island [1994, UCRL-LR-107036].  From 1986 to 1992, DOE scientists took just over 280 samples of just the top 0-5 cms of soil, tested for plutonium 239/240.  The 'update' study included, however, no sampling of plutonium below 5 centimeters.  Why this was done, when weathering and ocean flooding can disturb the top few inches of island soils, is a question that the Rongalepese must ask the DOE.  (Note that the soil layer 5-10 cm below the surface on Rongleap Island has 4-5 times the plutonium concentration of the 0-5 cm soil layer.) 

The 'updated' plutonium soil data cited in the 1994 report didn't provide anything really meaningful; according to the report, the island's mean 'interior' (meaning most of the island but outside of village area) plutonium 239/240 concentration was 4.32 pCi/g (0.16 Bq/g) about 35% more than the mean island-wide top layer concentration from the 1982 study.  The 1986-1992 sampling included an abundance of data (over 100 samples) from 'village areas' - these indicated that the mean plutonium in those soils were 0.837 pCi/g (0.031 Bq/g).  The maximum value in the village was 4.32 pCi/g (0.16 Bq/g); 15.66 pCi/g (0.58 Bq/g) in interior.

Also, it is interesting to note regarding the 1994 report that in Table A-6 (which reproduced data from the 1982 survey combined with data from 1986 to 1992 sampling) the number of samples corresponding to the 5-10, 10-15, 15-25 and 25-40 cm layers for both village and interior add up to 16, 18, 18, and 19, respectively, but the 1982 data only had 18 samples.  It appears that not all soil strata of the 18 soil samples passed QC in 1982.  This should be explained in a future DOE report.

From 1990 to 1995, the Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands actually undertook their own radiological study of 29 atolls by a principal scientist and an advisory panel of non-U.S. scientists.  The RMI Nationwide Radiological Study took surface and subsurface soil samples of plutonium, americium, radiocesium, and even cobalt-60 (intense gamma emitter) but NOT strontium-90. 

There were 156 plutonium 239/240 soil samples taken on a 'coarse grid' on Rongelap however only the top layer of 0-5 cm was sampled, no deeper.  The average (mean) value was 120.2 Bq/kg or 3.24 pCi/g.  The maximum value was 530 Bq/kg or 14.31 pCi/g (Pu239/240).  (Data from 'Report of the Findings of the Rongelap Resettlement Project by the Scientific Team' Rongelap Settlement Project, Majuro, Marshall Islands, Appendix A3, Section IV, Table 1 'Radiological measurement data of soils from southern islands Rongelap Atoll.)⁸

It is recommended that soil Pu239/240 samples be taken in all soil levels on Rongelap Island before resettlement. 

STRONTIUM 

As for Sr-90, the 1978 study indicated that the soils (after 20 samples) on Rongelap had strontium-90 at levels of 2.1 to 7.7 picoCuries per gram (in dry soil) in the top 40 centimeters.   

If we assume that one-half of Sr90 has decayed since the study, then the present values in undisturbed soil are in the third column:

In the more than 3 million square foot area surrounding the Divine Strake ground zero, 26 samples of Sr-90 were taken, ranging from 0.026 to 0.309 pCi/g; with an average of 0.1408 pCi/g(0.026 0.048 0.079 0.083 0.095 0.097 0.107 0.111 0.115 0.118 0.127 0.132 0.135 0.137 0.149 0.15 0.157 0.16 0.161 0.162 0.166 0.18 0.181 0.234 0.241 0.309).  [Draft December 2006 Revised Environmental Assessment, Large Scale, Open-Air Explosive Detonation DIVINE STRAKE at the Nevada Test Site, Table 3-4]

0.309 was the HIGHEST level around the Divine Strake ground zero!

We can see clearly that with or without scraping off the top 15 centimeters of soil, Rongelap soils have nearly 25 times the mean average of the strontium-90 in soils surrounding the 2006 ground-zero location of the Divine Strake test.  

However, there is some rate of loss of the soluble portion of strontium-90 during heavy rains on Rongelap. Still, with these high levels of Sr90, growing any food, especially vegetables, would result in human contamination.  This is what happened to Americans in the 1960s, when stratospheric fallout of Sr90 from global testing increased levels of Sr90 in vegetables (and every other foodstuff) such that vegetables contained some of the highest concentrations of Sr90 of any foods in the American diet.  LLNL rather admits this in their piece. They write in their recent paper Radiation doses for Marshall Islands Atolls affected by U.S. nuclear testing: All exposure pathways, remedial measures, and environmental loss of 137Cs published in Health Physics that "if leafy vegetables (lettuce, cabbages, mustards, mizuna, etc.) were to become more prominent in the diet at some point in the future (their use is very uncommon in the outer atolls today) then the dose from 90Sr would increase relative to that from 137Cs." This means that if leafy vegetables will be grown on Rongelap, then there will be a huge increase in radiological dose.  What about the uptake of Sr90 into pandanus fruit, coconuts trees, breadfruit, and other local food crops?  Pigs and chickens?  There is so little data on Sr90 levels in soil that it is impossible to predict uptake of Sr90 into a slew of indigenous foodstuffs.

(Citing Sr90 in soil per gram is not the way it is cited in most radiological studies.  Usually strontium-90 in soil is cited in units per gram of calcium.  But there is so much calcium in the soils in Rongelap - after all, it is all coral (limestone = calcium) - that using this method provides meaningless numbers.  If we consider that there is (decay-corrected) 3.5 pCi of Sr90 per gram of soil in Rongelap in the top 2.5 inches, and a cubic area equal to one square foot by 2.5" in depth of soil weighs about 7,000 grams, then there are 24,500 pCi of Sr90 in the top 2.5 inches of soil.  If we pretend that Rongelap's soils are like U.S. soils (they are not though) and the U.S. has an average of 20 grams of calcium per square foot down to 2.5 inches (or 6.4 cm), then the concentration of Sr90 in soil in picocuries per gram of calcium on Rongelap would be 1,225 pCi (Sr90/g of Ca).  If every picocurie of Sr90 per gram of calcium in soil is equal to 0.55 millicurie of Sr90 per square mile, then Rongelap has an adjusted average of about 2,200 millicuries of Sr90 per square mile , which is over 20 times current Sr90-in-soil levels in the U.S. and Europe⁵.)

In Kohn's report, using 1978 LLNL sampling data, he estimates that '28.1 pCi/d [picocuries per day] based on field samples plus a 25% increment for other miscellaneous foods' would yield a total exposure of 27.3 pCi/d.   If we assume that 1/2 of the strontium-90 has decayed, then then daily intake would be about 13 picoCuries per day of Sr90.  But because there have been no studies of Sr90 uptake in crops on Rongelap, Kohn might be off by a factor of 10 or 100.  

The LLNL's sampling could have missed - and probably did miss - radiostrontium hot spots.  A previous soil study in 1961 ['Atoll Soil Types in Relation to the Distribution of Fallout Radionuclides,' E.E. Held, S.P. Gessell and R.B. Walker, August 1965, University of Washington Laboratory of Radiation Biology, table II] notes that 'The distribution of radionuclides at the surface is very spotty.'  Their data is 100 fold greater for Sr90 in soil than LLNL's and varies by a factor of 10 because of the spottiness of hot spots.

The authors state that 'Cs137 and Sr90 are the principal radionuclides entering a cycle within the soil-plant system.  Any loss from this system appears to be small, but a definite conclusion can not be drawn from the data.'   Interestingly, the DOE's current main argument for resettlement is that levels are 'safe' because of environmental Cs137 loss.

The authors also state that 'The vertical distribution of radionuclides in old soils is as follows, in order of greatest penetration: Cs137, Sr90, Sb125, Co60, Zn65, Cr144, Pr144, Bu155 and probably other rare earths.'

Taking just 20 samples on Rongelap Island doesn't make a great snapshot, but the 1982 report was a 'characterization study,' and the real study, the so-called 'update' study, An Updated Dose Assessment for Rongelap Island [1994, UCRL-LR-107036] was issued in 1994 but included zero samples of strontium-90 in soil.   On the heels of that study, the RMI completed their own study, published in 'Findings of the NATIONWIDE RADIOLOGICAL STUDY' by Steven L. Simon and James C. Graham (December 1994), but didn't study strontium-90 either.  The abovementioned document notes that 'Because the dose from 90Sr is relatively well understood and because it is a relatively small contributor to health risk, this radionuclide has not been measured as part of this study.' [p.38]

This means that other than the 1965 University of Washington data, there are only the meager 20 samples of Sr90 from the DOE's 1978 survey!

Note that a 1961 Brookhaven study found that islanders' bodies had radiation levels of strontium-90 that rose six times normal levels because of their moving back to Rongelap in 1957, this is something we need to look at, right?   That strontium-90 all over Rongelap hasn't been removed although 75% of it is gone due to decay.  But even with these lower levels, we can assume that when Rongalepese return, their body strontium-90 levels may still rise several times normal levels.  All animals - fish, craps, etc.. - are bioaccumulators of radiostrontium; they pool strontium-90 into their bodies at concentrations tens or hundreds of times levels found in vegetation. Why aren't the Rongalepese asked to donate their deciduous teeth, or bone samples...where is their Tooth Fairy Study?   

Other islands showed much higher concentrations of Sr90 in the DOE's 1982 study (based on 1978 sampling; ALL data from nearby Arbar island was deleted because of QC problems....hmmm)⁶:     

It is quite possible that strontium-90 hot-spots were missed on the main island.  

It is recommended that MORE soil Sr90 samples (300 or 400 samples at all soil depths) be taken to make sure that hotspots weren't missed.  After all, the The Northern Marshall Islands Radiological Survey was itself a 'screening study' (also called a 'characterization study') that would be used to 'determine whether or not further detailed sampling effort might be required at any of the atolls.' [Introduction to part 4]⁷ 

Further Sr90 sampling must be required. 

CESIUM

It is interesting to note that of the 102 soils samples tested for Cesium-137 in southern Utah by R. Blair Bentley in 2008 for his thesis "A study of residual Cesium 137 contamination in southwestern Utah soil following the nuclear weapons tests at the Nevada Test Site in the 1950's and 1960's" the highest sample was 18.22 Bq in a volume of 600 mL - which is equal to 0.63 pCi/g.  The 1978 data on Rongelap soils shows that the 0-5 centimeter soil column had 15 pCi/g, and is about 6 or 7 pCi/g today - 10 times worse than one of the most contaminated spots in downwind Utah!  OMG!  

The DOE 1994 study, with its data sampling (over 400 samples for Cs137 in all soil strata down to 40cm), shows a mean concentration in Rongelap Island interior soils of 0.58 Bq/g or 15.66 pCi/g - this is decay-corrected to 1995.  Village areas show a mean of 0.17 Bq/g or 4.59 pCi/g - this too is decay-corrected to 1995.   Correcting these to 2010 using a multiplication factor of 0.7, we have 10.96 pCi/g in the interior and 3.21 pCi/g in village.

FINAL ANALYSIS

This whole scenario is no different than moving a Western Shoshone tribe to Yucca Flat, removing some soil, throwing some fertilizer on the farming areas and telling them everything will be okay. 

What to do?

A. We must consider that radiation victims - both those who were exposed from Bravo and those who weren't but lived in the radioactive environment of Rongelap from 1957-1983 - have compromised immune systems.  They shouldn't be exposed to any unnecessary radiation.  

The National Research Council's study titled Radiological Assessments for the Resettlement of Rongelap in the Republic of the Marshall Islands [1994, National Academies Press] states as a possible but 'extreme' solution the 'removal the top 30-40 cm of soil from the island.'  Although this 'extreme' measure wasn't recommended ('Such an extreme measure should be one of last resort') because it would have severe impacts on the environment (and topsoil likely wouldn't regrow for a long, long time), Idealist thinks this measure is the preferred one if resettlement is a high priority. 

B. The idea of taking residence elsewhere (on OTHER ISLANDS) on the atoll in the future should be 100% discouraged. The Marshall Islands Journal article titled 'Home At Last' (Feb. 12, 2010) notes that "a segment of the population that has land rights on Eneaetok Island wants to move back to this unimproved island to the north of Rongelap Island. To meet this need will require houses in addition to the 40 planned and budgeted for. A new school and dispensary needs to be completed." Eneaetok Island, however, may have strontium-90 levels 150% that of Rongelap Island and no post-1978 sampling has occurred on Eneaetok.

C. Trust monies should be used for more extensive Sr90 soil sampling and Pu239/240 sampling of the 5-10cm and deeper soil stratas on Rongelap Island.   Other radionuclides that should be tested for include Sb125, Zn65, Cr144, Pr144, and Bu155.  

The U.S. government should grant all requests for radiological sampling and cleanup activities.

D. A list of all the radiological surveys of Rongelap Island that included soil sampling, as we have mentioned above, should be made readily available on DOE and RMI websites.  Neither entity has mentioned and linked to most or all of the soil surveys.

E. Rongelapese must put safety above the prospect of tourism revenue and the allure of resettlement of their home island.  They must complete a second comprehensive nationwide radiological study that doesn't mirror previous ones by DOE.  A second study must test for (a) radionuclides that were tested by DOE but at depths never or rarely sampled, and (b) all long-lived radionuclides that were never or rarely tested by DOE, including Sr90.  

F. It is impossible to construct dose with having reliable data on Sr90 uptake and concentration by plants and animals and also concentration in human bones/teeth.  Both require data gathering of Strontium-90.  This hasn't been adequately done.

G. The U.S. CDC notes that U.S. soils contain levels of plutonium from global fallout of about 0.01 to 0.1 pCi/g.  Rongelap's soils contain anywhere from 40 to 400 times these levels.  The Rongelapese must ask themselves if the American people and several leading scientists condemned and ultimately stopped Divine Strake, then why would the Rongelapese want to live on similarly contaminated soils (we have tried to make the case in this analysis that the Divine Strake GZ in Area 16 of the NTS is just as contaminated as Rongelap Island).

************************************************ 

DOE press release "LLNL research at Marshall Islands could lead to resettlement," 2/11/2010

Recommended reading: Cold War fallout for Brookhaven National Lab by Newsweek, August 2009

Read about outstanding radiation-related compensation damages.

Rongelap Atoll map at OpenStreetMap

An Updated Dose Assessment for Rongelap Island [1994, UCRL-LR-107036]

¹ Greenpeace's assessment is in line with facts from a 1954 AEC press release that stated the evacuee total included 28 Americans and 236 residents. Kohn, however, notes that the Marshall Islands Statistical Abstract has 84 as the number of evacuees in 1954 at the time of the Bravo tests, but cites sources indicating that 64 residents were evacuated by the U.S. Navy from Rongelap Atoll to Kwajalein and adds [page 13] that another 18 who were "visiting Rongelapese were removed from Sifo Island, Ailingnae Atoll." (They were camping on Ailingnae.)    That's a total of 82.  (Kohn's numbers - 64 plus 18 - are in line with those in Radiological Assessments for the Resettlement of Rongelap in the Republic of the Marshall Islands [1994, National Academies Press]). Kohn adds to this the number of evacuees from Utirik of 157 (not 150), and, per Kohn, the total resident evacuee count [64+18+157] is 239.  

The American servicemen were situated on Rongerik Atoll, the nearest atoll to the east; according to Killing Our Own (1982; Harvey Wasserman) the Americans put on extra clothing and hunkered down in a tightly closed building and were evacuated within 34 hours.  

According to the website of the U.S. Embassy of the RMI [accessed 3.9.2010]: 'March 3 Rongelap islanders [were] evacuated 48 hours later, and Utrik [was] evacuated 72 hours after Bravo.'

² Kohn notes that in March 1958, on Rongelap Island there were '81 persons there who had been exposed on Rongelap or Ailingnae, and approximately 100 others who had not.'

The date of return to Rongelap was June 29, 1957. 

³ Apparently the initial reason Rongelapese were sent to the U.S. (for 'experimentation') was to treat persons with thyroid disease/nodules.  Kohn writes 'Almost all persons with thyroid nodules were sent for surgical treatment to the Cleveland Metropolitan Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio. Each one was compensated at the rate of $25,000 per surgery.'  Perhaps they were moved - and experimented on - around the U.S. 'labs' after that.  Experimentation also occurred on Kwajalein - read about 'Project 4.1' and the medical abuses of Marshallese Islanders in Barker's chapter in Half-Lives & Half Truths: Confronting the Radioactive Legacies of the Cold War, 2007.

⁴  From the Honorable Ron de Lugo, October 21, 1988, Congressional Record.  According to H. Baker in Half-Lives & Half Truths, the Rongelapese were first informed of the 'dangers of living in a radioactive setting' when EPA scientists at an annual DOE-RMI meeting in 1982 'made suggestive comments' (assumedly reflecting on the DOE 1982 report).

⁵ UNSCEAR 2000 Annex C gives 229 and 252 mCi/sq. mi. for the Sr90 deposition in latitude bands of 40-50, and 50-60, respectively.  Present values are 30-40% of those values, or about 100 mCi/sq. mi.

In Radiological Assessments for the Resettlement of Rongelap in the Republic of the Marshall Islands [1994, National Academies Press] the soil in Rongelap has a density of 1.2 grams per cubic centimeter.  Converting grams to pounds, this yields 0.00264 lbs/cm3.  Each cm3 is 0.001 Liters, so we have 0.00264 lbs/0.001 L, and each liter is about 0.035 cubic feet, so we have 0.00264 lbs/0.000035 ft3, or 75 pounds per cubic foot. If each pound is about 453 grams, then we have about 34,000 grams (per cubic foot) and a slice of that cubic foot going down just 2.5" would weigh just over 7,000 grams!

⁶  The Northern Marshall Islands Radiological Survey: Terrestrial Food Chain and Total Doses, W.L. Robison, M.E. Mount, W.A. Phillips, C.A. Conrado, M.L. Stuart, C.E. Stoker. Manuscript date: September 30, 1982. Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (UCRI-52853 Part 4) - this document can be found in the microfiche section of some U.S. federal depository participating libraries.  If there's a DOE 'retrospective' section - in the 'E' section - the microfiches for this report/survey can be found in the UCRI drawer.

The soil sampling was the second part (first part was aerial radiological reconnaissance) of a radiological survey conducted between September and November 1978 across the terrestrial and marine areas 76 individual islands (across 11 atolls and 2 islands) in the Northern Marshall Islands.

On page 7, part 4, it states that  'In most cases, soil profile samples were collected in the root zone of sampled plants so that radionuclide concentrations measured in the plant tissue could be compared to concentrations in the soil...Many soil profiles were collected at sites around the islands where no associated plant samples were taken.  These profiles were collected in the same manner as described above.  While the sample profile sites are selected more or less randomly, it is advantageous to choose a relatively undisturbed site with litter and surface soil intact...There were approximately 516 profiles collected and some 3093 soil samples were processed in the soil preparation laboratory between January and October of 1979....The quality control program was conducted independently by Dr. C.D. Jennings of the Western Oregon State College.' 

⁷ A more extended sampling effort should be conducted for other reasons: to identify the values of other radionuclides other than 90Sr, 239+240Pu, or 241Am on inhabited and uninhabited islands. Two, 20% of the total wet chemistry analyses for samples in the Northern Marshall Islands Radiological Survey did not meet quality control criteria and were rejected. 'Thus, there are some islands in the following tables where 90Sr, 239+240Pu, or 241Am concentrations are unavailable.'  Dashes are put in place of data that was removed, including, for example, all Sr90 and Pu239+240 soil sample data on the island of Arbar.  Three, for the part of the study relating to radionuclides in locally grown foods, the study states that not all foods were available and estimates were derived from soil samples: 'there were insufficient food products to directly determine the radionuclide concentrations in all locally grown foods at all islands' ... 'we have predicted the concentrations in those foods for which we do not have direct data by multiplying the average island soil concentrations... ' This data must be seriously questioned because only a data set from extended soil sampling, not 18 or twenty-something samples, could yield a good picture of food contamination.  (Also, it should be considered that the roots of the mature banana and coconut trees have 'some activity also in the 40- to 60-cm depth' which wasn't sampled for radionuclides.) 

⁸ Table 1 data, 156 values of Pu239/240 (in Bq/kg): 220 44 250 180 130 410 260 420 72 12 77 69 14 300 150 130 37 250 170 79 86 280 120 34 40 17 150 230 64 180 130 170 270 250 120 180 88 380 110 320 150 210 54 250 140 120 180 150 92 71 200 150 170 120 160 140 5.5 69 110 30 77 5.1 45 42 61 180 130 410 120 59 140 130 72 83 74 420 76 110 130 79 86 56 44 76 120 44 88 60 150 52 100 65 90 37 170 130 76 96 220 130 120 74 120 170 460 68 100 86 87 78 77 110 120 250 340 100 140 70 64 91 97 270 94 53 56 75 49 91 75 53 67 53 120 150 85 120 79 120 75 210 34 140 110 120 110 140 120 190 140 85 160 280 53 190 150 530

France turned Moruroa into a water-saturated Yucca Mountain

Geological profile

Moruroa atoll, one of the largest atolls in Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia, consists of a coral rim that measures 25 km (north-south) x 9 km (east-west) partially surrounding a lagoon.  

The atoll has a heterogeneous rock structure consisting of porous coral situated on top of several hundred meters of limestone rock over a 'transitional zone' of clays and calcareous rock and over a bed of permeable basalt rock.  

France conducted 137 nuclear blasts underneath (map) the atoll's extinct volcanic structure.  Blasts were conducted under the outer rim of the atoll through 1981 and afterwards under the center part (the 'old' crater) in shafts (800m-1200m) drilled into the basalt rock.

Vitrified glass 

Several such blasts resulted in a phenomenon called 'vitrificiation' - resulting from immense heat, the blast chamber sealed itself off with a glass-like veneer that trapped fission products including long-term radioactive gases (carbon-14, gaseous tritium, tritiated water vapor, krypton-85,...).   

Radiation migration

Most of the underground test areas are leaking slowly - radionuclides are moving slowly towards the atoll surface because the rock composition of the atoll is very porous and there are no rock 'barriers' to prevent radionuclide migration.  Radioactive gases can (and do) leak through fissures, producing 'fresh' surface radiation. 

French backdrilling (for sampling) into test cavities also results in gases leaking to the surface.  

Geothermal pockets

Artificial geothermal systems created by the radioactive decay heat build-up in sea-water filled rock areas (cavities) are another problem; the heated water dissolves the glass, 'liberates' the waste products and aids its slow upwards movement through the blast chimney (up the shaft or fissures).  

Even without geothermal effects, fission products leach from vitrified glassy rock over time.

Geologically unstable

A number of independent observers have concluded that Moruroa has 'major' and 'spectacular' cracks and fissures around its coral rim that stemmed from cumulative blast damage and that the atoll is unstable.  

The upper limestone layer is the most damaged and that damage facilitates upward mobility of the radioactive fission products.   Years of nuclear testing (and shaft drill-holes) have displaced "portions of the protective upper limestone apron and subsidence of the upper layers." (s)  

The geological stability of Muroroa has been threatened by all sorts of fractures of the rock and also by roof collapses in blast cavities. 

Surface contamination

Plutonium dispersal tests

Plutonium dispersal tests (12 of them) by the French (including a 'broken arrow' bomb accident in 1966) dispersed radioactive plutonium-239 on the surface of the atoll in substantial quantities (over 10 kg) that will leach into the ocean from natural processes.  

Above-ground testing 

Other surface contamination includes fallout from 42 atmospheric tests on Moruroa from 1964 to 1974.  Fallout landed not only around Moruroa but 'rain outs' also resulted in 'hot spots' as far away as Tahiti and Guam. 

North rim waste dump

An on-surface nuclear waste dump about 30,000 square meters in area (also the site of a plutonium spill - 'Zone tres contaminee') leached during cyclone activity in the 1980s when the dump's containment (asphalt) failed.  Scientists later found increased radioactivity levels around the atoll. It appears that two shafts were used for (underground) plutonium waste storage as well.   

Fangataufa 

Nearby Fangataufa atoll (41 km south-southeast) was the site of fourteen (14) French above-ground nuclear tests - including the 2.6 megaton hydrogen bomb test 'Canopus' (1968) - from 1966 to 1996.  (The 'Tamoure' test of 1966 took place adjacent to the atoll). 

A pair of underground tests were conducted there in 1975 and in 1988 the small atoll was chosen as the preferred site of French underground nuke testing after Moruroa's fragility (and associated costs) became obvious to the French. 

A total of ten (10) nuclear blasts were conducted in shafts drilled into the base of that smaller atoll in 1975, 1988-1991, 1995 and 1996. 

Fangataufa and Moruroa are the only two Pacific islands that were used for underground nuclear blasts. France's last nuclear test was conducted on January 27, 1996 on Fangataufa.

Total contamination

Although we know 137 underground tests were conducted at Moruroa, the total fission yield cannot be precisely determined; our estimate is 2,270 kilotons (2.27 MT).  Not accounting for radioactive decay, the subsurface areas retained about 75% of the strontium-90 (227,000 curies; about the same as Chernobyl) and cesium-137 (363,200 curies) created by the blasts.  Fangataufa's cumulative underground test yield is approximately 0.710 MT and strontium and cesium levels are about 25% of Mororua's levels.  

There are also hundreds of kilograms of unfissioned plutonium that remains sealed in cavities and that is also migrating from leaky cavities.

Moruroa 'Armageddon'

When sea levels rise, as happened with the several meter-high wave from the February 27, 2010 tsunami (that resulted from the 8.8-magnitude earthquake off Chile's coast), radioactive substances wash off Moruroa's contaminated shores into the lagoon and ocean, contaminating fish supplies near and far. Moruroa is only a few meters high and either of the 'T's - tsunamis or typhoons - can wash radioactivity out to sea. 

Moruroa can cause its own mass-destruction: coral cliffs can likely collapse at any point, triggering a tsunami and radiological 'spill' across French Polynesia.

Sources: The Greenpeace book of the nuclear age, 1989; ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS OF WEAPONS TESTING AT MORUROA ATOLL, SOUTH PACIFIC, 1995

Moruroa coord: 138.88 W, 21.83 S

More information (in French) here

Moruroa underground tests by date and name (mm/dd/yyyy)

3/4/1976 Patrocle
11/7/1976 Menelas
22/07/1976 Calypso
30/10/1976 Ulysse A
5/12/1976 Astyanax
19/02/1977 Ulysse B
19/03/1977 Nestor
2/4/1977 Oedipe
28/06/1977 Andromaque
6/7/1977 Ajax
12/7/1977 Clytemnestre
12/11/1977 Oreste
24/11/1977 Enée
17/12/1977 Laocoon 27/02/1978 Polyphème
22/03/1978 Pylade
25/03/1978 ?
1/7/1978 Xanthos
19/07/1978 Arès
26/07/1978 Idoménée
2/11/1978 Schedios
14/11/1978 Aphrodite
30/11/1978 Priam
17/12/1978 Etéocle
19/12/1978 Eumée
1/3/1979 Penthesilée
9/3/1979 Philoctète
24/03/1979 Agapenor
4/4/1979 Polydore
18/06/1979 Pyrrhos
29/06/1979 Egysthe
25/07/1979 Tydée
28/07/1979 Palamede
19/11/1979 Chrysostemis
22/11/1979 Atrée
23/02/1980 Thyeste
3/3/1980 Adraste
23/03/1980 Thésée
1/4/1980 Boros
4/4/1980 Pelops
16/06/1980 Euryphyle
21/06/1980 Ilus
6/7/1980 Chryses
9/7/1980 Leda
19/07/1980 Asios
25/11/1980 Laerte
3/12/1980 Diomède
27/02/1981 Broteas
6/3/1981 Tyro
28/03/1981 Iphiclès
10/4/1981 Clymène
8/7/1981 Lyncée
11/7/1981 Eryx
18/07/1981 Théras
3/8/1981 Agénor
6/11/1981 Leto
11/11/1981 Proclès
5/12/1981 Cilix
8/12/1981 Cadmos
20/02/1982 Aerope
24/02/1982 Deiphobe
20/03/1982 Rhesos
23/03/1982 Evenos
31/03/1982 Aeson
27/06/1982 Laodice
1/7/1982 Antilokos
21/07/1982 Pitane
25/07/1982 Laios
27/11/1982 Procris
19/04/1983 Eurytos
25/04/1983 Automedon
25/05/1983 Cinyras
18/06/1983 Burisis
28/06/1983 Oxylos
20/07/1983 Battos
4/8/1983 Carnabon
3/12/1983 Linos
7/12/1983 Gyges
8/5/1984 Demophon
12/5/1984 Midas
12/6/1984 Aristée
16/06/1984 Echemos
27/10/1984 Machaon
2/11/1984 Acaste
1/12/1984 Miletos
6/12/1984 Memnon
30/04/1985 Cercyon
8/5/1985 Nisos
3/6/1985 Talaos
7/6/1985 Erginos
24/10/1985 Héro
26/10/1985 Codros
24/11/1985 Zetes
26/11/1985 Mégarée
26/04/1986 Hyllos
6/5/1986 Ceto
27/05/1986 Sthelenoss
30/05/1986 Galatee
10/11/1986 Hesione
12/11/1986 Nauplios
6/12/1986 Peneleos
10/12/1986 Circé
5/5/1987 Jocaste
20/05/1987 Lycomède
6/6/1987 Dirce
21/06/1987 Iphitos
5/11/1987 Pasiphae
19/11/1987 Pelée
29/11/1987 Danae
11/5/1988 Nélée
25/05/1988 Niobe
16/06/1988 Antigone
23/06/1988 Dejanire
25/10/1988 Acrisios
5/11/1988 Thrasymedes
23/11/1988 Pheres
11/5/1989 Epeios
20/05/1989 Tecmessa
3/6/1989 Nyctee
24/10/1989 Hysipyle
31/10/1989 Erigone
20/11/1989 Tros
25/11/1989 Daunus
2/6/1990 Telephe
7/6/1990 Megapenthes
4/7/1990 Anticlee
21/11/1990 Thoas
7/5/1991 Melanippe
18/05/1991 Alcinoos
14/06/1991 Pitthee
5/7/1991 Coronis
15/07/1991 Lycurgue
5/9/1995 Thétis
27/10/1995 Heypytos
21/11/1995 Phégée
27/12/1995 Thémisto