Lojwa Rats, Devil Dogs, Flyboys, Soldiers, Sailors, and Civilians - Enewetak Atoll Clean-up Healthca
Posted by bqggroup on November 7, 2010
Enewetak Atoll (or Eniwetok Atoll) is an atoll in the Marshall Islands of the central Pacific Ocean. Its land consists of about 40 small islets totaling less than 6 km², surrounding a lagoon, 80 km (50 mi) in circumference. It is located at , making it the second westernmost atoll of the Ralik Chain.
History
Humans have inhabited the atoll for at least 2,000 years.
Enewetak was not known to Europeans until visited in 1794 by the British merchant sloop Walpole, who called it “Brown’s Range” (thus the Japanese name “Brown Atoll”). It was visited by only a dozen or so ships before the establishment of the German colony of the Marshall Islands in 1885. Along with the rest of the Marshalls, Enewetak was captured by Japan in 1914 and mandated to them by the League of Nations in 1920.
The Japanese mostly ignored the atoll until World War II. In November 1942, they built an airfield on Engebi Island, which was used for staging planes to the Carolines and the rest of the Marshalls. When the Gilberts fell to the U.S., the Japanese Army’s 1st Amphibious Brigade came in to defend the atoll, January 4, 1944. They were unable to finish fortifying the island before the February invasion by the U.S., which captured all the islets in a week.
After the war, the residents were evacuated, often involuntarily, and the atoll was used for nuclear testing as part of the U.S.Pacific Proving Grounds. Bodies of United States servicemen killed in the Battle of Enewetak and buried there were exhumed before testing commenced and returned to the United States to be re-buried by their families. Some 43 nuclear tests were fired at Enewetak from 1948 to 1958. The first hydrogen bomb test, code-named Ivy Mike, was held in late 1952 as part of Operation Ivy, and it vaporized the island of Elugelab. This test included the use of B-17 Flying Fortress drones to fly through the radioactive cloud for the purpose of testing onboard samples.
The drones were controlled by B-17 mother ships flying within visual distance of these drones. In all there were 16 to 20 B-17s taking part in this operation, of which half were controlling aircraft and half were drones.
For examination of the explosion clouds of the nuclear bombs in 1957/58 several rockets (mostly from rockoons) were launched.
The people began returning in the 1970s, and on May 15, 1977, the U.S. government directed the military to decontaminate the islands. This was done by mixing the contaminated soil and debris from the various islands with Portland cement and burying it in one of the blast craters. The crater was at the northern end of Runit , which is an island on the eastern side of the atoll. This continued until the crater became a spherical mound high. The crater was then covered with an thick concrete cap, dubbed “Cactus Dome”. All services participated in this effort.
The U.S. government declared the islands safe for habitation in 1980.
In 2000, the Marshall Islands Nuclear Claims Tribunal awarded in excess of $340 million to the people of Enewetak for loss of use, hardship, medical difficulties and further nuclear cleanup. Note that this award does not include the approximately $6 million annually budgeted by the U.S. for education and health programs in the Marshall Islands.
The U.S. government referred to the atoll as “Eniwetok” until 1974, when it changed its official spelling to “Enewetak” (along with many other Marshall Islands place names) to more properly reflect their proper pronunciation by the Marshall Islanders.
Little is known about the Enewetak atoll, for 8 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 along-standing moral commitment to the People of Enewetak. The cleanup itself, executed by the Department of Defense (DOD), was an extensive effort, involving a Joint Task Force staff and numerous Army, Navy, and Air Force units and personnel. The rehabilitation and resettlement project,carried out by the Department of the Interior concurrently with the cleanup, added complexity to the task and required the closest coordination – as did the important involvement of the Department of Energy (DOE), responsible for radiological characterization and certification.
The combined effort cost about $100 million and required anon-atoll task force numbering almost 1,000 people for 3 years, 1977-1980.No radiological cleanup operation of this scope and complexity has ever before been attempted by the United States.This documentary records, from the perspective of DOD, the background, decisions, actions, and results of this major national and international effort. Every attempt has been made .to record issues as they developed, and to show the results, good and bad, of specific decisions,oversights, etc.
Because this documentary may have considerable importance in the future, and because specific needs for data cannot before seen with accuracy, every attempt has been made to record in some detail all major facets of the operation and to reference key documents.Throughout the research, collection, and writing, four major types of potential users have been kept in-mind. The documentary is designed:- First, to provide a historical document which records with accuracy this major event in the history of Enewetak Atoll, the Marshall Islands,the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Micronesia, the Pacific Basin,and the United States.
To serve this end, the documentary addresses political, legal, administrative, and social issues; and it attempts to put the cleanup in perspective in terms of the prior history of Enewetak Atoll,World War II, the nuclear testing period, and the United Nations Trusteeship.- Second, to provide a definitive record of the radiological contamination of the Atoll.
It addresses the origins of the contamination a shot-by-shot basis; the types, concentrations, and locations of contamination prior to the cleanup; the radiological cleanup decisions and their rationale; the cleanup processes themselves; and the resulting radiological situation, island-by-island. It is believed that this type of data will be useful over the coming decades as living patterns on the Atoll change, new radiological surveys are taken, improved health physics. understanding becomes available, and new risk-benefit decisions are made.
For this purpose this documentary will supplement the more technical data published by DOE.- Third, to provide a detailed record of the radiological exposure of the cleanup forces themselves. As years pass, it will become increasingly important to the cleanup participants, to the U.S. Government, and to health physicists and radiation biologists, to have a meticulously accurate record of the radiological safety policies and procedures; an overview of personnel assignment practices; and a careful summarization of airsampler readings, film badge and thermoluminescent dosimeter exposures, bioassay samples, etc.- Fourth, to provide a useful guide for subsequent radiological cleanup efforts elsewhere. It seems likely that there will be future requirements for radiological cleanup of extensive areas which present complex contamination problems.
Toxic Paradise - Enewetak Atoll cleanup project veterans
Since the Enewetak cleanup was a bellwether effort of its kind, the many lessons learned should provide useful guidance for those who will plan and execute future efforts. Information such as this is quickly lost if not permanently recorded.
In developing this documentary, every effort has been made to be accurate, balanced, and objective. However, since issues can appear in some what different light when viewed from different organizational perspectives, the reader should keep in mind that the authors generally have a DOD affiliation.
Photo's and Video (Veterans) added for effect.
