A Visit to ‘Ground Zero’ - Runit Island Enewetak Atoll-Atomic Clean-up 1977-80
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD APRIL 12, 1977 - New York Times
ENEWETAK, Marshall Islands — The boat had reached the other side of the lagoon at the shore of an island called Runit.
Snow‐white fairy terns and darker noddy terns glided and wheeled over the island, about 15 miles from Enewetak. Trees and green scrub grew out of the coral sand. Only the aging steel tower suggested anything unusual about Runit.
“Really innocent looking, isn't it?” remarked A. J. Bennett, the radiation safety and security officer for Enewetak atoll. He was escorting a small party of visitors to Runit, which had been “ground zero” for many of the nuclear‐bomb tests from 1948 to 1958.
Runit is the “hottest” of the 40 islands that make up the Enewetak atoll, formerly one of the principal sites in the Pacific Ocean for nuclear testing by the United States.
A sign at the pier warned in English and the Marshall language:
“Caution Radioactive Contamination. Do Not Proceed Beyond This Point Without Permission From The Enewetak Atoll Site Manager.”
Varied Contamination
While still on the pier everyone slipped on rubber boots and double‐gauze masks over the nose and mouth. Mr. Bennett cautioned against touching any metal objects or picking up any souvenirs—no coral or anything. And be careful not to get any scratches or cuts, he said.
There is still some plutonium in the soil of Runit, but its alpha radiation not considered dangerous unless it kicked up and breathed in or swallowed, or unless it comes in contact with an open wound. Then the plutonium can work its way into the organs of the body, .primarily the lungs. The metal scrap emits gamma radiation, cobalt‐90, which is no problem for someone passing through but could be dangerous over the long term. Some plant life is contaminated with cesium and strontium‐90.
It is no place to live, only visit—and then only briefly.
Runit is off‐limits to the people of Enewetak, who last month returned to their homeland to try to take up life where they left it 30 years ago, when they were packed away into exile to make way for the nuclear tests. About 75 of a total 450 Enewetakese are now living on Japtan, one of the islands in the atoll that was not used for testing.
Must Never Be Inhabited
Runit must never be inhabited or cultivated. According to the plans for three‐year cleanup of the atoll, which begins this summer, Runit will be the dumping ground for the radioactive soil and debris that are cleared away from other islands.
The cleanup operation is being directed by the Defense Nuclear Agency, with the assistance of the Energy Research and Development Administration. It will cost $20 million, and $12.4 million more is being sought from Congress by the Department of the Interior to rehabilitate the atoll—that is, to plant food‐bearing trees and build new housing for the people.
• This is the first comprehensive project to clean up and rehabilitate a former nuclear‐test site.
Walking along an old road of coral sand on Runit was an eerie experience. Morning glories were in bloom. All was Serene, except for the occasional cry of a bird swooping low over the intruders.
Stark Skeleton From Past
Then the party came to the tower, stark skeleton out of the past. It had been used for cameras that took the pictures of the mushroom clouds that once r‘ose over Runit, when the earth shook and blasts of radiation and heat filled the air and the sea rose in tidal turmoil.
• Below the tower was the blockhouse, its steel door open to a dark and dank labyrinthine vault where scientists sat out the violence and studied their instruments. Near the tower the hulks of old ships lay rusting on the beach.
About a mile up the road, at the northern end of the island, were two huge, deep craters filled with water. They had been gouged out of the coral and limestone by nuclear blasts. The needle on Mr. Bennett'Bennett radiation counter rose as he approached the craters. When he ran the counter over a piece of twisted metal, the needle swung off‐scale.
One or both of the craters will be the final resting place for the radioactive material cleared away from the other islands. Studies made by the Defense Nuclear Agency and ERDA indicate that there are some 125,000 cubic yards of nonradioactive debris and 7,300 cubic yards of radioactive scrap, plus 79,000 cubic yards of plutonium‐contaminated soil requiring removal and disposal.
To Begin Next Month
Some of the details of the cleanup plan have not been decided, but the general outlines are as follows.
The mobilization is to begin next month. There are about 100 Americans living and working on Enewetak now, mostly civilians who maintain the airfield and some mothballed facilities and Coast Guardsmen who run a radio navigation station. By the end of the year the number is expected to increase to 850 or 900, mainly military personnel.
The Navy is to operate the ships needed for the cleanup and to dredge channels to some of the islands. The Air Force will handle communications, air supply operations and health facilities. The Army Corps of Engineers, the largest contingent, will do most of the actual cleaning up, starting in November and running through 1979.
One Army team will operate off the main island of Enewetak and be responsible for work in the southern islands of the atoll. These were not sites for nuclear testing, and thus have no radioactive debris, but it was there that the scientists, technicians and support troops‐10,000 at one time—were based.
Contractor to Buy Scrap
For example Medren, the next island over from Enewetak, is a ghost town of abandoned corrugated structures, tank farms, water towers, concrete streets, rotting piers and foundations of buildings that have long since disappeared. A scrap contractor from the United States has agreed to buy most of the non-contaminated metal in the southern atoll, about 80 percent of which is on Medren.
Both Medren and Enewetak must be cleared and, in a sense, “unpaved” so that the people can grow the coconut, breadfruit and pandanus trees on which they depend for much of their food. Most of the people are expected to settle on the two islands after the cleanup, while the other islands are to serve as tree farms for harvesting food.
Two other Army cleanup teams will be based on Lojwa, one of the northern islands.
From Lojwa one of the teams will fan out over the tiny islands to identify and collect scrap metal, contaminated soil and other debris. The non-contaminated debris will be dumped into the bottom of the lagoon. The contaminated debris and soil will be sent to Runit.
The other team from Lojwa will be in charge of disposal operations at Runit. Working in protective clothing, using trucks and cranes, the troops are to drop contaminated scrap into the bottom of “Cactus Crater,” so named after the codename for the atomic test conducted there.
The contaminated soil will be mixed with Portland cement and water, producing a slurry that will be pumped Into the crater to harden over and around the scrap.At the end of the operation a concrete cap 18 inches thick will be laid over the crater.
That part of Runit will be fenced off from the rest of the island.Scientists from ERDA will conduct aerial and ground radiation surveys before and after the cleanup. With radiation detectors installed in helicopters, they will locate possibly hazardous terrain, which would then be surveyed in more detail on the ground. Areas for soil and debris removal would thus be staked out.
Additional surveys will he made ‘during and at the end of the cleanup to see if the radiation levels have been reduced to acceptable levels. (Image from completion of project in 1980)
Nature Recovers
In earlier tests, ERDA scientists said that they found most life on Enewetak atoll had returned to normal. Dr. Ron S. Nolan, a marine biologist from Hawaii who has spent considerable time examining atoll life, has written:
“Today fish and corals thrive in the craters, which attests to the capacity of nature to recover from nearly any kind of disturbance.”
In a booklet prepared for the returning Enewetakese, the energy agency advised that fishing anywhere in the lagoon would be safe, capturing wild birds and gathering bird eggs would be permitted on any island except Runit and harvesting pandanus and coconut would be restricted to the southern islands until further tests were conducted. In particular coconut crabs from the northern islands are strictly forbidden food.
Roger Ray, ERDA assistant manager for environment and safety, described the crab as “the one organism of some concern” because it has tended to accumulate strontium‐90.
Indiscriminate Absorption
The crab does this when it sheds its shell and grows a new one. At that time the crab needs all the shell‐building calcium it can absorb, getting it from eating old crab shells or out of its food and the sea water.
But calcium and strontium‐90 so resemble each other chemically that the crab'crab system absorbs both indiscriminately. This phenomenon was discovered in the early days of atmospheric nuclear testing, when elevated levels of strontium began showing up elsewhere, in cows’ milk.
In all evaluations of the atoll'atoll safety, Mr. Ray said, ERDA has made its estimates and predictions “based on the little child who arrives this year and will spend at least 70 years eating nothing but food grown on the atoll.”
Furthermore, Mr. Ray said in an interview:
“We see no mutations of marine life or vegetation. We just don'don see any of the two‐headed monsters that science fiction suggests would be the case after prolonged radiation.”
A Profusion of Life
The resilience of nature is quite apparent on Enjebi, another of the northern islands particularly hard hit by the nuclear testing. Birds are everywhere, terns and ployers. Geckos, small lizards, sing you to sleep at night. The island is dense with kirin (messerschmidia) trees, scaevola scrub and vines.
And the rats of Enjebi—somehow some of them survived the nuclear devastation, burrowed in deep holes, and now are estimated to have proliferated to 10,000. Mr. Ray said that examinations several years ago of the rats, presumably descendants of the survivors, showed “no genetic abnormalities or diseases attributable to radiation.”
But Dr. William B. Jackson of Bowling Green State University in Ohio, a biologist who has studied the Enewetak rats for a decade, said that there has been surprisingly little recent research on rats concerning the potential longterm genetic effects of radiation.
These island rats’ normal lifespan about one year, and there are about two rat generations a year. This means that more than 25 generations of rats have come and gone since the nuclear tests. which could be a significant period for observing subtle genetic alterations, there are any.
Future Surveys Planned
Mr. Ray said that even after the cleanup project “we'we come back periodically and make repeat surveys just to make sure there are no surprises.”
During the Defense Nuclear Agency'Agency cleanup the Department of the Interior is to begin the rehabilitation program—the building of houses and community centers for the people and the planting of seedlings.
Initially, most of the building and planting will be on Enewetak, Medren and Japtan. But most of the northern islands will be planted as soon as their safety has been certified.
A request for $12.4 million for the rehabilitation program is now before Congressional committees. The younger of the two chiefs of the Enewetak people, Binton Abraham, was in Washington recently to appeal for the financing.
Congress has been slow to act on requests involving the resettlement of Enewetak. The $20 million appropriation for the cleanup was defeated twice before finally being approved last year.
Mr. Ray spent much of the 1950's on Enewetak as an Army engineer involved in the nuclear tests. He is now taking lead in the return of a safe Enewetak to the people of Enewetak.
“They are victims of history,” said Mr. Ray late one evening soon after the first people had returned. “In the 1940's we had this weapon and we had to test it. So we took these islands, and I don't think anybody, under the circumstances, thought anything about the people. We did't think much about that until later. Since I left the Army five years and went with ERDA, I'I made it my‐'mission to do something about the people.”
Mr. Ray seemed as proud of his.new role with the people as he was dedicated once to using their island as a proving ground for the nuclear age.
