Runit Dome: The Radioactive Trash Can on Enewetak - Anonymous Comments

I was there in 1979 for the cleanup an feel compelled to clear up a few of the untruths and accusations I have read here. 1. The US did not take the atoll from the natives, they bought the atoll, moved all seven tribes to an island about 300 miles away. 2. The money the natives received was placed in a trust and each person receives a check quarterly. 3. The tribal chiefs selected one child from each of the tribes and that child was sent away to school (USA, England, France, etc.) 4. One of them became a lawyer and sued the US, won and the US was required to make the island habitable again. 5. The standard for "habitable" radiation level was based on the natural radiation level of Denver Colorado. 6. The amount of contaminated soil removed was determined by the DOE (Department of Energy) using a tracked vehicle and a probe (known as an IMP) that measured the radiation levels for every 4 foot square of the island. 7. Once an island was determined to meet the requirement, the entire population would return on a Navy ship and the tribal chief would survey the island and the Corp of Engineers built each individual/family a house to their specifications. 8. My assignment there was to teach Radiation Protection to all personnel upon arrival; collect individual dosimeters and film badges and record their readings; collect and record all contaminated island dosimeter reading also. 9. Lemon and Lime trees were planted and the amount radiation drawn up through the roots was also monitored. If you current information follow this link: https://marshallislands.llnl.gov/index.php

I was a participant in the Nuclear Clean-Up Project as a U.S. Serviceman. I was Discharged with an Honorable Discharge and moved up the ranks faster than anyone I knew. I found your comment to be repulsive, due to the fact of the hardships we all suffered while there and for our entire lives' post Enewetak. I ended up with Stage 3-C Colon Cancer that the Government admits causing. I have proof of where I was at and when I was there. We were not told why we were going there and we were given NO protective gear to clean up radiation from the largest weapons ever detonated on the planet. The half-life for radiation is 10-20000 years after the blasts. Now with your incredible insight, do you believe that scraping 18 inches of topsoil off the island, including the one we were living on, then replacing it with soil from the Nevada Test Site is going to decimate all the radioactive debris, dust, groundwater, lagoon, food we ate? No. But the U.S Government has turned their backs on all of us and done nothing. I had to quit working at 49 years old. I lost everything I ever worked for. I had a business that netted me almost 500,000 per year. I gave back to my community and was never greedy. We did a ton of Philanthropy work and never used one item of those donations on my tax returns. For you to call one of us an idiot is a blatant Kick in the Teeth to an Honorable person that paid his dues to protect the interests and citizen's of the United States, without ever knowing of the circumstances of our living, working and most of all, our health risks. The government placed us there, and YES... THEY OWE US! Big-Time! And individuals such as yourself should be a little more empathetic towards the ones that keep you free. Sincerely, Another ATOMIC VETERAN THAT HAS BEEN IGNORED. And yes, by this stage in our lives, we all have Attitude!
Americans were harmed. I am one of them and there are many more that have suffered their entire lives since the Clean Up Operation. You have to re-check your sources. We are dying off at a ridiculously fast rate. I have less than a year. Death Sentence for serving honorably. The natives were removed from the islands and a few wanted to go back. We made them all wealthy, they chose other places to live and the servicemen suffering from Cancers and other diseases and illnesses get nothing

I am a harmed American as a participant of the clean up of 43 nuclear tests on Enewetak. It is still, to this day, uninhabitable. What we did there was strictly a Dog and Pny Show for the world to see. The military could not find one civilian company that was willing to risk going in to Enewetak to do the clean up. Our government said: No Problem, We will do it with American forces. With an estimated cost of 100 million. That total ended up being 239 million, and every one of us is ill with something. We have less than 100 survivors out of 7,00 troops. We are all in our fifties. I was given less than one year to live from my late stage cancer directly proven from exposure to radiation. I have the readings and copies of film badges and dosimeters that were also proven faulty if they managed to get wet. Polaroid or AT&T were the ones that developed the film for the badges and we now have proof that the film was designed to read less exposure than what we were actually receiving. Google "Atomic Clean Up Vet's and read the truth as to what is now happening to the troops that participated. We recently lost 13 of our brothers in less than one week. We also had equipment from Vietnam that was contaminated. The U.S. Government dumped it all in the lagoon and claimed it was for an artificial reef. For starters, they didn't need an artificial reef on the lagoon side. It should have been on the Ocean side. We had absolutely NO PROTECTIVE GEAR. I have over a thousand photos that prove this fact. I was there for six months. It was not a very nice thing for our government to do to us.
Tourists are not allowed to travel to Enewetak. Reporters and scientist's only. With that, they have to have permission from the State Department and the Department of Energy. The visitors that go there are placed in quarantine prior to departure. They are still given protective gear when visiting. This something that the Clean Up Troops were never afforded by our grand government. The Marshallese People are presently being relocated to Arkansas. Due to the fact that Enewetak is still not safe. The northern islands are still Highly Radioactive and still be for another 120,000 years to 200,000 years. Every island was monitored prior to the clean up between 1977 through 1980. And EVERY ISLAND was contaminated. The troops that were participants have cancer and many other diseases. Their children and grandchildren have birth defects, yet the government denies them help or benefits. They have hidden all proof and that information has continued to be withheld. I was one of the participants. Delay, Deny Until We Die. This is the governments Motto as far as ill and dying troops are concerned. They Lie ad Cover Up. as well as hiding ALL proof in files that we can not attain. Google "Atomic Cleanup Vet's". Make your own opinion.
Sound's like you aren't American, maybe you should move to a third world, grow your own food, shovel your own body waste and make your own electric to give you the ability to power the internet you just posted on with that freedom of speech you are blessed with. Ungrateful, mistakes are made; if you want to give up your American Citizenship no one would miss you. Disgracing your nation is disgusting, you rather let invaders keep attacking. It was a show of force a bitter means to an end of attacking colonist namely japan and a show of might other nations at the time which were all in the race to develop this technology.

No citizen can be blamed for the actions of its government! Soldiers did what they were ordered to do. Terrible activity produced a lot of hate for exposing our own people! Shame on the government for not being able to clean this up! What exactly can be done? We all need to stop blaming each other for something the government did! Serious pressure needs to be put on OUR US government to take immediate action!
I was awarded a six month all expenses paid vacation to the rock from Oct 77 to Mar 78 from Uncle Sam.What is being discussed here is true.I am 57 years old w/o any symptoms that I am aware of.Maybe because I am too scared to seek medical help from the V.A. and find out what so many of you with whom I served have already found to be true.We who were there know the truth.Hopefully the American citizens will know soon.
Hi, I was a lojwa animal also. April to October either 77 or 78.I was part of the boat crew Mesh 2 also known as crash 2 for the many times are chief left us high and dry on coral heads!We hauled the soil from the northern islands to Runit. Now that I think about it ,it had to be 77 because they outfitted the deck with an experimental iron box,welded in place by the HT's to facilitate the transport of more soil. Uniform of the day : cut off's , jungle boots, and maybe a jungle hat. The first few run's we covered the soil with a tarp, then I think it be came torn or just a hassle so it was discontinued. We would decon the well deck after leaving Runit with fire hoses, washing everything in to the lagoon.I question the validity of the comments made by lime and lemon tree guy. We never received any safety briefing, and for the 6 months that I was there, I think the badges and dosimeters were collected maybe twice and some were lost and maybe you got another before you left or maybe you didn't. The whole deal of Enewetak is really a shame. It was such a beautiful place at one time. Oh, I should probably add that I have some health issues ,one of those being cancer.

Apparently, knowledge of the nuclear era has essentially disappeared not only from textbooks but also from the minds of people old enough to still remember the Arms Race, air raids, fallout shelters, canned water, etc. For all of the nuclear tests that were performed and bombs created, nuclear weaponry has so far only been used twice in history: against Japan in WWII. How/why is it so hard for so many to see what the U.S. Gov't has done to thousands of its own military troops? Oh, and let's not forget the indigenous people of the Marshall Islands? Why is it so unthinkable that our own gov't would lie to cover its own six? "If we close our eyes really tight and don't acknowledge that we sent men to the Marshall Islands quite on purpose, then it really didn't happen." WRONG ANSWER. Time to face the facts, Sheeple...our government does not act in the best interest of its own people. Eh, what's a little collateral damage? Between 7 and 8 THOUSAND men served down on those islands in the late 1970's alone......and less than 300 of them are still alive...many with health issues that can be attributed to exposure to radioactive materials....and some who are fortunate and have had nothing health-wise show up to date. But the huge fact of the matter is that men stepped up VOLUNTARILY to serve their country during a time (think post Vietnam) when serving wasn't a very popular thing to do. What did the gov't do? Send them to do a job where no civilian contractor wanted to go. And think about the money that private contractors are paid by the gov't for work they do? You KNOW conditions had to be pretty bad in the Marshall Islands...and to leave these men, these few survivors that are left hanging out to dry? To not so much as acknowledge their service? Great job, Uncle Sam! For all the naysayers and ignorant individuals who have no clue as to what is going on, take a look at www.atomiccleanupvets.com Educate yourselves....this really happened.
1979 I was there, we set offshore for three days on a ship doing a in-chop. tell a bunch of squids not to fish guess what we did,, caught some of the weirdness stuff I've ever seen. At least we were smart enough not to eat it.

I am so sorry to inform you that many Americans were harmed in the tests. Out of 8,000 men that were assigned to do the Cleanup of Enewetak Atoll, only 134 of them are surviving. I am one of them. We have all suffered through various illnesses. Cancers, Blood diseases, low birth rates, Radiation Poisoning and more. These guys have yet to receive healthcare or compensation for their exposure. Let me also add that while they were there, they were never given any protective gear and they were never told why they were going there. it is a whitewash. The Cactus Dome is full of cracks and was made with a mixture of soil from the islands. They scraped 18 inches of topsoil when radiation levels were abundant and off the charts at six ft. of depth and deeper. They shipped soil over from the U.S. to replace the soil that was originally removed. That soil came from the Nevada Test Site. We managed to get rid of some of the contaminated soil from the U.S. All equipment was dumped in the lagoon at the end of the cleanup operation due to Radioactivity. I was there in 1978. According to the government... We were never there. Our records are blank, they have no film badges or dosimeter records and we are all dying. The Marshallese were reportedly paid massive amounts of money for their trouble. As usual, the U.S. manages to find a way to keep it, and what they did get was used to fight he U.S. in the judicial system and through the United Nations. It has been a Dog an Pony Show for years. Radioisotopes from Enewetak were found 2300 miles away off the Chinese Coast. Water rises to the top during high tide and seeps out through the cracks and in to the ocean. It is highly contaminated. Presently the Marshallese that are still there (very few) are scrapping any metal that they can find and selling it to the Chinese. All the heavy cables on the bottom of the lagoon (to set off the original 43 nukes) are being drudged for scrap. Then sold. The U.S. has washed their hands of Enewetak to date. They claimed they were not sinking another dime into the project. A failed project at that. As far as the technology goes, we were behind during the war and thought that Germany would get it first. Once many Scientist's defected for Peaceful reasons, we beat them to it. We told Stalin about it, but he already knew and had started to develop Russia's nuclear program. The film badges and the dosimeters that were given to the clean up participant's were faulty and the incorrect kind. The dosimeters did not read properly and if they were bumped against something or got wet, it rendered them useless. The film badges could not get wet due to moisture causing them to get low readings, plus they were enclosed in a clear plastic badge protector, which kept them from getting any exposure. if there was a slight hole of opening in the cover, it would retain moisture. Google "Atomic Cleanup Vet's" and draw your own conclusion. I am an original "Lojwa Animal".
I hope this story, along with the Navy Vets at Fukushima and the USS Liberty get the coverage they deserve. I am a recent Marine Infantry Vet with two combat deployments and I've heard how Depleted Uranium will be 'my' generations Agent Orange. I hope not... Keep up the fight... Also, I would like to point out that a lot of the people on here that seem 'Anti-American' probably just hate the gvt and the politicians decisions. I am not a fan of the gvt - but that doesn't make me Anti-American - and even regarding war, you should check out a short read by a Marine Corps God - Smedley Butler and his writing War is a Racket. After reading that, the bowels of DC have been corrupt for sometime... Best of luck to you all who were stationed there for clean up... I hope you all can start a different clean up this time and expose the truth to your cause.
What a DB. Where were you during the clean up? Many countries performed Nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands. More than likely yours was one of them. Discover the truth before you spew garbage from an uneducated mind and mouth. Hey! Didn't we save your country once or twice? More than likely, because you speak freely and have the internet! Babies can't protect themselves and adults that are too scared to do anything run in the opposite direction. Do you drive a car? American ingenuity! many other things as well. So just STFU! Unless of course you have something decent to add to the conversation. At least we take bathing and teeth brushing serious and we don't squat in the streets.

Yes. It did really happen and we have suffered ever since. The DOD turns their backs on us and so does VA. The DOE has hidden all of our records and added an additional 75 years of secrecy to this. By then we will all be dead and maybe then our great grandchildren 'Might" see it in the history books. I was there for six months and was never told before arrival that it was contaminated. We fought an invisible enemy and could not fight back.

The soil that was scraped off the islands and dumped in to the atoll was replaced with soil from the U.S. Want to know where the U.S. Soil was brought in from? The Nevada test site. I have proof of this also. Let's fight fire with Fire instead of water. Lojwa was only tested for Cobalt and nothing else. A half life of 7 and a half years. Plenty of Plutonium, Cesium, Strontium, Iodine and many other things that make an atomic weapon.
Some of the proof through science has proved some of what you claim to be false now vs. a few years back. The islanders have been relocated to Minnesota and Arkansas. The islands are off limits due to radiation. Coconut trees were planted in grids in the Northern half of the islands, where the contamination was much higher. The coconuts are still not safe to eat, nor the fish, nor the crab, nor the water is safe. Our Government did not buy the atoll. There was an agreement with the Marshallese for the benefit of mankind with the promise to make it habitable again. They have received only a fraction of their money for the use of the islands and they have used the money to fight the U.S. in court for damages. They are very poor people. Since this has all happened, the U.S. has washed their hands of the Marshallese and have given up paying them. Left them out to dry so to speak. The radiation levels are still hundreds of times higher than the readings in Denver. It is equivalent to 1200 nuclear bombs the size of Hiroshima, every single day you are on Lojwa in the northern half of the atoll. I was there in 1978 for participation in the clean up. I have some friends that just returned from there to do a story for the Guardian and Huffington Post. They were given protective gear and quarantined before they left. It is an atrocity.
To the following post. It was far worse than when the actual bombs went off. The troops there in the fifties during the blasts were here, under cover for maybe one or two blasts. I was there to clean up the residuals from 43 nukes. The contamination was still there. The island that I lived on contained enough Plutonium and Cesium to set of a 455 megaton bomb. The residuals are still there and will be for roughly 240,000 years. We also had no protective gear and were forced to pick up a lot of this stuff with our bare hands.
To the following post. It was far worse than when the actual bombs went off. The troops there in the fifties during the blasts were here, under cover for maybe one or two blasts. I was there to clean up the residuals from 43 nukes. The contamination was still there. The island that I lived on contained enough Plutonium and Cesium to set of a 455 megaton bomb. The residuals are still there and will be for roughly 240,000 years. We also had no protective gear and were forced to pick up a lot of this stuff with our bare hands.

To the Gentleman that spent five minutes on Runit at the cactus dome site. Cancer is very present in most of the clean up participants. You must have been very lucky. I was stationed on Lojwa. It was in between Aomon and Runit. $ weapons detonated on those two islands with Lojwa in the middle. We were exposed to severe amounts of radiation and I have proof. Google "Atomic Clean Up Vet's" for an accurate story for proof. I have definitive proof and we are about to go before Congress very soon. There is an awareness campaign and whomever denies that we were never exposed is an idiot. Do your research and fin out what the truth states. We are dying off at the rate of 85% more than our counterparts from the U.S. And yes, we spread that over the entire earth. They found radioisotopes in the water from Enewetak off the coast of China. The Runit Dome was made of substandard concrete and is now cracking and has holes in it big enough to crawl through. The islands are off limits. If it was still safe, then why won't the U.S. allow the Marshallese to return to their country instead of setting them all up in Arkansas?
I was stationed on Enewetak for the Clean-up. I didn't find out we were awarded Humanitarian awards until 33 years after they were issued. I never did get mine. I had Stage 3-C Colon Cancer. I am on 30 medications, have over 20 different health issues. I have a Nexus Letter from a VA doctor that states he believes my cancer was caused by exposure on Enewetak. I also have a presumptive disease that is acknowledged by the VA. I have all my records and travel orders. My records were either missing, redacted and my medical records were completely blank. I am now on my third appeal. I have contacted over 50 politician's, News organizations and various Veteran Organizations and I have gotten absolutely nowhere. This is a blatant slap in the face to anyone that served there under Honorable Conditions. Why does our government turn their backs on us?

It horrifies me that this dome is portrayed as some sort of amusing novelty. The Marshall Islands were declared the most toxic place on the planet over a decade ago. My father was there during the tests; he died of multiple forms of cancer as a result of his service. The Marshallese way of life was ruined forever. Veterans of the tests and the cleanup efforts have died or continue to suffer from illness and their children have suffered genetic damage as a result of the US government's zeal to test as many weapons as possible before the moratorium. Survivors are still waiting for acknowledgment, adequate care, and compensation for their losses. Yet our government continues to send troops to Eniwetak and visitors come and go freely to play on beaches that will be dangerously radioactive long after all of us are gone. The government that declared the Marshalls "safe" is the same government that sent our families there to be poisoned and die slow, painful deaths.