#454 - June 21, 1996

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#454
21/06/1996
Full issue

Campaign to close Krsko fails

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#454
21/06/1996
Article

(June 21, 1996) On 16 May, in a joint press conference, Slovenian environmental groups Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth conceded defeat in their campaign to secure the immediate closure of Krsko (NEK), their country's only nuclear power plant.

(454.4495) WISE-Amsterdam - They said they had too little money and lacked political support. Despite two months of campaigning, the movement managed to collect only 2,463 signatures of the 40,000 needed to force a referendum on the plant's immediate closure (see WISE NC 444.4399). Complex bureaucratic procedures required for gathering signatures for the referendum petition were partly to blame for the small number of signatures. The Slovenian environmental groups had conducted the signature campaign during the 10th anniversary of the April 1986 Chernobyl disaster, hoping that the commemoration would encourage people to participate.

NEK, built in cooperation with Westinghouse, lies about 100 km east of Ljubljana. Owned jointly by Slovenia and Croatia, it produces about 20 per cent of the annual electricity consumed in the two states. (Both countries declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.) The plant, which started operating in 1983, is scheduled to be closed down in 2023. The NEK management recently said it expected to spend 180 million marks (US$117 million) over the next five years for the installation of two new steam generators.

During the press conference, the environmental groups nonetheless vowed to continue campaigning for the immediate closure of Krsko. They presented the following demands:

  1. That the Slovenian government formally request aid from neighboring countries, international financing institutions (IFIs) and the European Union for the immediate closure of Krsko.
  2. That the members of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDS) make good on their May 1994 commitment to a national referendum on Krsko before the steam generators are purchased. (Only three of them are needed to sign the standing parliamentary petition to have a referendum.)
  3. That no decision on Krsko be made until the final report of the International Commission for Independent Saftey Analysis (ICISA) has been issued. (The ICISA, which consists of nuclear experts from Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, the US and Austria, has conducted an independent review of Krsko's safety. Its final report is due to be out in June or July.)

Sources:

  • Krsko Task Force, 17 May 1996
  • Reuter, 21 May 1996

Contact: Paxus Calta at WISE Brno -hduha@ecn.cz

Chinese underground nuclear test

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#454
21/06/1996
Article

(June 21, 1996) On Saturday, 8 June 1996, at 0256 GMT, China conducted an underground nuclear test at its Lop Nor test site. It was China's 44th nuclear test since exploding its first atomic bomb in 1964 and one or two more are expected this year. The blast had a magnitude of 5.7 on the Richter scale.

(454.4493) WISE-Amsterdam - On 12 June, the Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that China exploded more than two nuclear warheads simultaneously. The newspaper, quoting government sources, reported that the US government informed Tokyo of China's multiple test, part of its program to produce smaller warheads for submarine-launched and multiple-targeted missiles. China may have decided to detonate more than one warhead at the same time because of growing criticism against the tests.

The tests aroused official condemnation around the world. Kazakhstan, which borders China's Xinjian province, where Lop Nor is located, said it was very concerned by the nuclear blast and urged Beijing to fulfil its pledge to impose a moratorium on atomic testing. Mongolia, which has declared itself a nuclear-free zone, also protested. It fears that the tests are responsible for higher-than-normal radiation levels in areas of its southern Gobi desert.

Sources: Reuter 8, 9, 10 & 12 June 1996
Contact: Women of the Orient for a Nuclear-Free World and Safe Environment. Almaty, 480012, Vinogradov str. 85, Republic of Kazakhstan,
Tel: + 7-3272-63 38 02 or 29 25 07
Fax: + 7-3272-50 71 87

Decontamination after incident at South Ukraine plant

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#454
21/06/1996
Article

(June 21, 1996) All the cities in a 30 km zone around the South Ukrainian nuclear power plant are now being cleaned up by deactivating substances.

(454.4492)WISE Amsterdam - It is possible that the South Ukranian nuclear reactor did release a large amount of radioactivity into the atmosphere on 27 May. The decontamination was reported from Pervomaisk, a small city located 32 km from the reactor, in Anti-Atom Press, a Russian newsletter of nuclear news and events published by ex-USSR antinuclear activists.

It's a tradition in the Ukraine to clean up cities with the use of deactivating chemicals after serious accidents involving the release of radioactivity from nuclear reactors, but nobody knows if it is of any use.

Source: "Anti-Atom Press" Nr 56, June 1996
Contact: E-mail: ed@cci.glasnet.ru

Explosion and fire during loading spent fuel

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#454
21/06/1996
Article

(June 21, 1996) Loading of spent nuclear fuel into dry storage containers was suspended at the nuclear plant in Point Beach (Wisconsin, US) following an explosion during a welding procedure 28 May.

(454.4491) WISE Amsterdam - According to an initial report of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), initial report, an unidentified gas ignited inside a fully-loaded cask of nuclear waste containing 14 tons of spent fuel rods at 2:45 a.m. of the said date, causing an explosion. The explosion occurred just prior to the welding of the 9-inch thick cask lid that weighs about 4,400 pounds. The explosion inside the cask lifted the 2-ton lid, leaving it tipped at an angle with one edge 1 inch higher than normal. There were no injuries.

The NRC has suspended further loading of nuclear waste casks until it can determine the cause of the accident and whether any spent fuel rods were damaged by the explosion. Each 18-foot high cask is loaded with 14 tons of radioactive waste, including 170 pounds of plutonium. Each loaded silo contains the equivalent radioactivity of 240 Hiroshima-type explosions. According to US guidelines, the waste must be kept in safe conditions for 10,000 years.

The explosion confirms environmental groups' concerns that the VSC-24 dry cask storage system has not been sufficiently reviewed to protect public health and the environment. This radioactive waste storage explosion demonstrates the real threat to the Great Lakes ecosystem.

Source: Little Zeros Watch (US), 31 May 1996
Contact: Eleanor Roemer, Lake Michigan Federation, USA.
Tel: +1-312-939-0838.

In brief

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#454
21/06/1996
Article

Slovak arrested in Germany on uranium charge.

(June 21, 1996) A Slovak engineer was arrested on 5 June, on suspicion of smuggling 2.77 kg (6.1 lbs) of radioactive uranium into Germany, investigators said. The uranium was found in a bank safety deposit box in the southern town of Ulm. The 49-year-old man was detained as he entered the bank, apparently intending to collect the material, which consisted partly of low-grade natural uranium and partly of more fissile enriched uranium. State prosecutors said they acted on a tip-off from Austrian police who told them the man was trying to sell the uranium for $1 million. Last year, 198 people were caught trading illegally in nuclear materials in Germany, according to a report in Focus news magazine. Seventy percent were foreigners, mainly from Russia, Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine.
Reuter, 5 June 1996

British ship sunk with nuclear weapons aboard. A report on nuclear accidents from the International Atomic energy Authority (IAEA) says that HMS Sheffield was carrying WE-177 nuclear depth charges when it was sunk by an Argentinian Exocet missile during the 1992 Falklands/Malvinas War. The British government denied at the time that nuclear weapons were being transported into the South Atlantic war zone. Although it has been assumed for years that nuclear weapons were on board HMS Sheffield when it was sunk, the IAEA report is the first public acknowledgement of this fact. "This episode underlines yet again the fundamental dangers of nuclear weapons, the environmental hazard they threaten if involved in an accident, and the fact that they are absolutely useless in actual conflict situations," stated Janet Bloomfield, Chair of British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).
Peace News (UK), June 1996

German spent fuel to be reprocessed in Dounreay. The German Minister for Research Ruettgers wants spent fuel from all German research reactors to be reprocessed in Dounreay, Scotland. After the US finally agreed to take back spent fuel from the reseach reactors, the Germans now want rather to reprocess it. There is no contract signed yet, but although scientists are not really keen about it a spokesperson of the facility in Dounreay said, the Germans had shown interest in reprocessing spent fuel there. The weekly Spiegel pointed out, that this could be the only possibility to get Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) for the research reactor FRM II in Garching, because the US doesn't want to deliver it and there are problems with the Euratom and Russia, too. (see WISE NC 451.4454).
Die Tageszeitung (FRG) may 31, 1996; Spiegel may 27, 1996

N-BASE Website. The Northern European Nuclear Information Group (NENIG) not only has the monthly magazine N-Base; it also has an N-Base website. N-BASE is the title used by NENIG for its informa- tion services. The N-BASE site has an indexed database on the UK civil nuclear industry and on other related nuclear and non-nuclear issues, plus reports on reprocessing, Dounreay and Sellafield, radioactive waste, nuclear transports, marine discharges and international marine conventions. The full URL is: http://www.zetnet.co.uk/oigs/n-base. Please note that NENIG's phone and fax is now the same number: +44 (0)1595 694099

Javanese oppose nuclear plant

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#454
21/06/1996
Article

(June 21, 1996) The results of a survey conducted by the Indonesian newspaper Kompas indicate that the majority of the inhabitants of Java, Indonesia's most populous island, are opposed to the government plan to construct the country's first nuclear power plant (estimated to cost $2.1 billion) on the island.

(454.4496) WISE-Amsterdam - Of the survey's 1,496 respondents, 52 per cent declared that they were against the plan. Forty-two per cent agreed with the plan, and six per cent had no opinion. The respondents were of high school level or higher. The Kompas report gave no other details.

The Indonesian Environmental Forum reported that results of a survey made in February showed that 88 percent of 1,000 respondents on Java were against nuclear power stations being built in Indonesia. In May, Indonesian authorities deported three Japanese citizens because they participated in an anti-nuclear protest in central Java (see WISE NC 452.brief).

Indonesia's National Atomic Agency (BATAN) announced in January that it hoped to build the power plant in 1998 or 1999, pending the results of a study of the Mount Muria site in central Java, 440 km (275 miles) east of Jakarta. Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. and the U.S. Westinghouse Electric Corp were expected to bid for the project, the agency said. Critics say the proposed plant would be dangerous because Mount Muria is an earthquake-prone area of Java. The island is home to about 60 per cent of Indonesia's more than 190 million people.

Source: Reuter, 6 June 1996

Marshall Islands 1946-1996

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#454
21/06/1996
Article

(454.4498) WISE Amsterdam

1944
(June 21, 1996) February - US forces capture Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, from the japanese. Americans recruit Marshallese living on outer islands of Kwajalein lagoon as labours in support of war effort.

1945
July 16 - at 5:29 am, Trinity, the forst test of an atomic bomb, takes place at Alomogordo, New Mexico, US.

August - on the 6th, US drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It is estimated by Japanese that 140,000 died by december, 1945, as a result of the bomb. Three days later the second bomb is dropped on Nagasaki. About 70,000 died by december, 1945, as a result of the bomb. On the 10th Japan surenders to the US: The end of World War II.

November - American military and political leaders begin planning nuclear experiments for further development of nuclear weapons. Two tests, codename Operation Crossroads, planned to test effects of atomic explosions on naval vessels. Search begun for an appropriate site.

1946
January - Navy officials in Washington, D.C. announce that Bikini atoll, in the Marshall islands, fulfills all climatic and geographical requirements for Operation Crossroads.

February 10 - Bikinis first relocation accomplished swiftly and with little planning. Military governour of the Marshalls obtains consent of Bikini's paramount chief for the relocation, informing that the scientists were experimenting with nuclear devices "... for the good of mankind and to end all world wars." After deliberation, the Bikini's consent to move, but have no real alternative other than submission to US plans.

March 7 - 166 Bikinians move from Bikini to unhabited Rongerik Atoll, almost 100 miles east, whose 17 islands barely contained one-half square mile of dry land. Already two month later they express anxiety over the resources and make the first of many requests to return home.

June - Operation Crossroads begins at Bikini Atoll. It includes two atomic bomb blasts - Able (june 30) and Baker (july 24). About 250 ships, more than 150 aircraft for transport and observation, and 40,000 military, scientific and technical personnel are eventually involved in Operation Crossroads.

December - Bikinians situation on Rongerik worsens. Food shortages occur during the winter month of 1946/47.

1947
June - Military govanor appoints investigation board to look into Bikinians plight. In meeting with the people, they report that there is insufficiant food, the store is bankrupt, fresh water supplies are low, and the atoll has only one brackfish well. The Bikinians suggest Kili Atoll as a possible relocation site.

 

I hate living on Ebeye, it's a terrible life here. I'd much rather be living on Mejato with my family. But I've been so ill and now the doctors can't find what's wrong with me - they tell me I have to live here to be near a hospital and so I can get a flight to Honululu if I need to quickly. I hope to move away one day but right now I don't dare. I'm afraid.
Lijon Eknilang from Rongelap. She had seven miscarriages and suffers from a thyroid tumor.

July - The Marshall Islands, along with the Caroline and Mariana Islands, formerly under a League of Nations mandate to the Japanese, become the United States Trust territory of the Pacific unter the United Nations. Military gouvernment ends, but Navy given authority for the new administartion until it can be transferes to a civil agency.
The situation on Rongerik further deteriorates. A medical officer, after visiting Rongerik, reports the the Bikinians were "visibly suffering from malnutrition."

October 17 - Navy officials announce the Bikinians will be moved to Ujelang, the western-most atoll in the Marshalls.

November 22 - Ten Bikinians and twenty Seabees go to Ujelang to begin construction of a new village.

December - On 2nd Washinton officials announce that Enewetak Atoll is to be used for a second series of nuclear tests, and that its inhabitants must be moved immidiatly. On 21st the people of Enewetak are quickly relocated to Ujelang Atoll, which has only one fourth the land area of Enewetak, and has a much smaller lagoon - 25 square miles compared to Enewetaks 390 square miles.
Bikinians remain an Rongerik Atoll, despite having build housing at Ujelang.

1948
January - The high commiciner of the trust territory requests an independent survey of the Rongerik situation by University of Hawaii anthropoligist Dr. Leonard Mason.

February 4 - A medical officer an food are flown to ronegik. After their examination, the doctor states their condition to be that of starving people.

March 14 - Bikinis are evacuated from Rongerik and are sent to a temporary camp on Kwajalein. The Rongerik resettlement lasted two years and one week.

April - Operation Sandstone begins on Enewetak. This series includes 3 atomic tests, on april 14, april 30 and may 14.
Search begins for alternative resettlement sites for the Bikinians. One June 1, they vote two to one in favor for Kili Atoll, uninhabited former Japanese copra plantation, over Wotje Atoll, inhabited and controlled by former paramount chief.

September - Advance party of 24 Bikini men and eight Seabees arrive on Kili and begin construction of a new village.

November 2 - The total Bikini community arrives on Kili. The disadvantages of the island include a lack of a lagoon and protected anchorage, and the heavy winter surf which isolates and halts offshore fishing from november to late spring. Kili has advantages of good agriculturesoil and stands of quality coconut trees for copra export.

1950
April - Operation Greenhouse begins at Enewetak; this series includes 4 atomic tests: on April 7 & 20, May 8 and 24.

1951
January - The 40 foot ship provided for the Bikinians by the administration washes into Kili reef by the heavy surf and sinks with a full load of copra. (Because of rough seas and a shortage of vessels, food supplies on Kili run critically low on more than one occasion from 1951 to 1953. At one point the situation becomes so critical that an air drop of emergancy rations is required).

January - The Marshallese labour camp on Kwajalein (about 500 people) is relocated to the island of Ebeye, 3 three miles away.

July 1 - The Navy administration of the Trust territory is replaced by the US-Departement of the Interior.

1952
Operation Ivy begins at Enewetak, includig the first thermo-nuclear bomb test, Mike (October 31) estimated at 10.4 megatons and King (November 15), a "high yield" atomic test. "Mike" blast vaporizes Elugelap Island, and leaves a crater one mile in diameter and 175 feet deep in the coral reef. The mushroom cloud rises to 130,000 feet in just 15 minutes.

1954
The population on the island of Ebeye, a 66 acre island less than a mile long and 650 feet wide, grows to 1000 people as the Kwajalein base offers employment for 220 Marshallese.

February - The US gouvernment informs the chief of rongelap that a hydrogen bomb test is going to be carried out soon, but does not inform him of any precautionary measures to take.

March - Operation castle begins at Bikini and Enewetak with six atomic tests. The series includes Bravo, largest thermonuclear bomb at 15 megatons, and five other blasts, all in the high yield range, 100 kilotons and above.

March 1 - "Bravo" exploded at Bikini at 6:45 am. Despite an incomplete and somewhat alarming report concerning the winds above Bikini, the decision is made t proceed with the test. Winds from sea level to 55,000 feet were generally heading east or northeast, in the direction of Rongelap, Rongerik and Utirik, all inhabited atolls.
The Bravo detonation creates a blinding flash of light followed by a fireball that shoots upward at the rate of 300 miles an hour. Within 10 minutes the giant nuclear cloud reaches more than 100,000 feet (21.6 miles). Winds several hundred miles per hour at the center an 70 to 100 miles an hour at the blast's edge rock the placid lagoon like a full scale typhoon.
Joint task force Seven ships are located in monitoring positions about 30 miles from the blast, in what was expected to be an upwind position. Within minutes after the explosion, Radiation Safety (RadSafe) personel see the unexpected movement of the cloud, and the ships begin to record a steady increase in radiation levels. All personnel are ordered below decks, and hatches and watertight doors are sealed. The ships proceed due south away from the danger zone.
Approximately one and a half hous after the blast, a "gritty, white ash" begins to fall on the 22 fisherman aboard the Japanese fishing vessel "Lucky Dragon", which was in the waters near Bikini. The fishermen were unaware that the ash was fallout from a nuclear test. In three days they begin to experience the affects of acute radiation exposure: itching of the skin, nausea, and vomiting. Two weeks after their exposure, they arrive in Japan. Within two years the Japanese gouvernment recieves $2 million in compensation from the US for the Lucky Dragon's exposure.
Radsafe personnel stationed on Rongerik increase observations following news of the nuclear cloud's erratic behavior. Approximately 7 hours after detonation, radiation exceeds monitoring instrument's maximum scale of 100 milirads per hour. taking strict radiation precautions, all personnel put on extra clothing and remain inside tightly shut building. Within 34 hours after the "Bravo" explosion, all personnel put on extra clothing and remain inside tightly shut building. Within 34 hours after the "Bravo" explosion, all 28 Americans are removed from Rongerik.
Four to six hours after the blast, a white, snow-like ash begins to fall on the people living on Rongelap and the 18 Rongelapese on Ailingnae, about 100 miles east of Bikini. The white dust soon forms a layer on the island an inch and a half thick. The fallout is also carried into the drinking water catchments. Later that day, personnel go to Rongelap, find the radiation levels dangerously high, and tell the people not to drink the water. They then leave to report their findings.

Unlike the Americans stationed on Rongerik, the People of Rongelap were not told of any precautionary measures to protect themselves from the fallout. About 24 hours after the Americas were evacuated from Rongerik, ships from the Seventh Fleet arrive at Rongelap and Ailingnae to remove the people. It has been more than two days since the people were initially exposed to the radioactive fallout.

Utirik Atoll, about 275 miles east of Bikini, is the last to experience the fallout from the "Bravo" blast. The Fallout beings about 22 hours after the test, and is described as "mist-like". The 157 islanders on Utirik are removed by the Navy three days and six hours after "Bravo".

March 5 - Many of the exposed people, having all been evacuated to Kwajalein, begin experiencing symptoms of acute radiation exposure: itching and burning of the skin, eyes and mouth, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. During the month, the second stage of radiation exposure begins to be felt: hair on the heads of many people wholly or partially falls out, the skin 'burns' begin appearing on the necks, shoulders, arms and feet of the more heavily exposed.
According to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) approximately 90% of the exposed Rongelap people suffer from skin lesions and loss of hair, beginning about two weeks after exposure.
The maximum permissible dose per week of radiation to the thyroid gland is set at 0.3 rems. According to the AEC, the exposed children on Rongelap received a dose of 500 to 1,400 rads to the thyroid gland, or 1000 to 2000 times more than the maximum permissible dose.

May - After initial examination, Rongelapese resettled on Ejit Island in Majuro Atoll, because high radiation levels on Rongelap prevent their return. They are examined by AEC medical teams in September, 1954, and in March 1955, 1956 and 1957.
Utirik people, receiving what AEC officials term "small" amounts of radioactive fallout from "Bravo" test (at 14 rads), return to Utirik from Kwajalein. AEC states "their island was only slightly contaminated and considered safe for habitation."

1956
Operation Redwing begins at Enewetak and Bikini, and includes 13 atomic and hydrogen bomb tests. "Cherokee" blast listed as "several megatons."

September - Enewetakese, who had received NO compensation for use of their home atoll, are offered $25,000 in cash and a trust fund of $150,000 with semi-annual interest payments, by the U.S. government. The people, faced with difficult living conditions on Ulelang Atoll, accept offer.

November - Bikini people sign agreement giving the U.S. government "full use rights to Bikini Atoll until such time as it determines it will no longer be necessary to occupy and use the said Atoll." In return the Bikinians are given "full use rights" to Kili Island and several islands in Jaluit Atoll and $25,000 in cash and a $300,000 trust fund yielding semi-annual interest payments of $4,972.50 (approximately $15 per capita) - to be divided among the Bikinians living on Kili.

1957
July - AEC radiological survey states that "in spite of slight lingering radioactivity" Rongelap Atoll is safe for habitation. People move back to Rongelap from Majuro Atoll, after three year exile. (In 1971 a Japanese medical survey team reported: "Our conclusion concerning the human test on the people of Rongelap is that it was a great mistake to permit the people of Rongelap to return to their island in July, 1957 without sufficient work having been done to remove radioactive pollution from the island.")

1958
January - Typhoon Ophelia causes great destruction on Jaluit and other southern atolls. All Bikinians living on Jaluit have to move back to Kili as colony site becomes uninhabitable. Still births and miscarriages among exposed Rongelap women more than twice the rate of unexposed Marshallese women (for first four years only, following exposure in 1954). Operation Hardtack (Phase 1) begun at Enewetak and Bikini, largest and final test series conducted in the Marshalls. Series includes 29 nuclear tests, and two blasts of megaton strength near Johnston Island. Following Operation Hardtack, U.S. concludes nuclear testing program in the Marshalls, after more than 60 announced atomic and hydrogen bomb tests at Enewetak and Bikini. More than $2.5 billion spent during the testing program in the Marshalls, begun in 1946.

1960
Kwajalein converted from Naval Air Station to part of the Army's new Pacific Missile Range.
During winter months, field trip vessels unable to provide adequate service to Kili Island; Bikinians face food shortages again.

1961
Army's Pacific Missile Range at Kwajalein completed. Kwajalein lagoon becomes target for Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles fired from California. Because of increased job opportunities for Marshallese at the missile range, population on Ebeye continues to expand.
A report for the AEC by Dr. Robert Conard (of Brookhaven National Laboratory) shows that after the exposed people of Rongelap were returned to their island in July, 1957, their body burden of radioactivity rapidly increased. In 1961 it was recorded by the AEC that their body levels of radioactive cesium rose 60 fold, zinc rose 8-fold and strontium-90 rose 6-fold.

Last month we had three suicides. Being the chief executive of Kwajalein Atoll Development Cooperation and the mayor of Ebeye and the one responsible for the wellbeing of these people, I'd rather they went to the US and learned some new things, learned how to be themselves, rather than stay here and commit suicide in my face. Once again someone comes to wake me at 2 a.m. to tell me there's been another suicide. [...] I would rather our young people went to fight a justified war on behalf of the US than fought against themselves here over a can of beer or bottle of rum.
Alvin Jacklick, 1987

1963
Polio epidemic throughout the northern Marshall Islands, caused by a case in American population at Kwajalein. 196 cases of severe residual paralysis secondary to polio were recorded among the 18,000 inhabitants of the Marshalls, although polio vaccine had been discovered 8 years earlier. The attack rate in the U.S. is about one patient with severe residual paralysis per 1,000 infections of polio.

1964
First thyroid tumors begin appearing among radiation-exposed Rongelap people - also, a higher than average level of growth retardation among young Rongelap children. A 99-year lease for Kwajalein Island (750 acres) signed by Kwajalein landowners, Army Command and Trust Territory. Lease provides compensation of $500 per acre for past use (since the end of WWII) and $500 per acre for future use. An additional payment of $40 per month is provided for each of the original 148 Mid-Corridor residents relocated by the Army to Ebeye in 1964. "Mid-Corridor" refers to central two-thirds of Kwajalein lagoon required by Army for its missile testing. (Marshallese Congressman Ataji Balos stated in 1976, "The people of Kwajalein do not recognize the validity of that lease. When it was negotiated, the Army promised to help the people of Ebeye with social and economic problems. So did the Trust Territory. That lease was signed on the basis of those promises. Those promises have not been kept.")

1965
July - Congress of Micronesia, a territory wide legislative body modeled on the U.S. Congress, holds first session after being created by an executive order in 1964.

1966
January - Ex gratia payment by U.S. government of about $950,000 for injuries resulting from radioactive fallout. ($10,800 per capita.) In a 1966 film entitled "Return to Bikini," the AEC says the island has returned "almost to normal" when in fact it is covered with thickly entangled scrub weeds, and debris from the nuclear testing program.

June - New England Journal of Medical Science reports that the death rate among Marshallese exposed to radiation was 13.0 per thousand compared with 8.3 for the Marshalls as a whole, in the 12 years following the "Bravo" test in 1954.

1967
Enewetakese living on Ujelang Atoll nearly starve, when the few crops available are attacked by growing number of rats on the island.

1968
Enewetak people living on Ujelang Atoll face starvation conditions. Supply ship arrives, but is short of goods - islanders board ship and refuse to leave, stating they wish to abandon Ujelang. Ataji Balos a government official (later a member of the Congress of Micronesia), agrees to stay on Ujelang with the people until a new supply ship returns with sufficient food. Ship returns within two weeks.
President Johnson promises 540 Bikinians, living on Kili and other islands, a permanent return to Bikini because radiation levels, according to the AEC, dropped below the danger level. Brookhaven National Laboratory (on contract to the AEC) medical team reports that all but two of the nineteen children on Rongelap who were less than ten years old when their island was subjected to radioactive fallout in 1954, have developed abnormal thyroid glands.

1969
Bikini resettlement planned to extend over period of eight or more years to allow for maturation of newly planted crops. The AEC and Defense Department plan first phase of cleanup of radioactive debris on Bikini, while Trust Territory assumes responsibility for second phase of replanting the atoll, constructing houses and relocating the community.

October - Bikini cleanup phase finished. AEC, military personnel and equipment withdraw and weekly air service to Kwajalein terminated. Phase two of rehabilitation marked by serious logistics problems. Bikini declared safe for reoccupation. AEC states, "There's virtually no radiation left and we can find no discernable effect on either plant or animal life ".

October - Congressman Balos' and other Marshall Islanders' actions set in motion U.S. Congressional legislation to pay $1,020,000 to the Enewetak people to be phased in a trust fund. Medical survey by Dr. Robert Conard (Brookhaven) shows little difference in radioactivity levels among exposed and unexposed Rongelap people living on Rongelap. However, as late as 1969 the body radioactivity levels of previously unexposed Rongelap people was 10 times that of Marshallese living on Kili.

1970
AEC conducts survey on Enewetak and finds that atoll radiation level has dropped enough to allow islanders to return if extensive cleanup of remaining radioactive debris is undertaken.

1971
Bikini rehabilitation program proceeds at snail's pace; because of erratic shipping and no air service, supplies arrive late. Eventually replanting at Bikini and Enyu Islands completed.

September - Air Force Pacific Cratering Experiments (PACE) project begun on Enewetak. More than 220 tons of explosives brought to Enewetak for series of tests, aimed at simulating nuclear bomb blasts. Six tons actually detonated; 190 holes drilled into reefs and land for explosives; and 86 trenches (seven feet deep, 3 feet wide and 6 feet long) dug in different parts of the atoll.

December - Japanese medical survey team comes to Marshall Islands at request of Marshallese. Administration refuses medical team permission to travel to Rongelap and Utirik, in what administration terms conflict over credentials. Medical team stays on Majuro and meets with those exposed to radiation - their report states: "the team was welcomed by the islanders, who strongly desired our investigation work...."

1972
January - Marshallese Congressman Ataji Balos accuses the U.S. of consciously allowing Marshallese people to be exposed to radioactive fallout in order to study the effect of radiation on human beings; states the Brookhaven medical team is using Rongelap people as guinea pigs and not giving them proper medical examinations and treatment.
Marshallese refuse to allow AEC doctors to examine them during annual AEC medical survey, until AEC agrees to include independent doctors on their team.
Bikinians living on Kili Island begin moving back to Bikini atoll.

February - Congress of Micronesia creates Special Joint Committee concerning Rongelap and Utirik Atolls to investigate the problems of the irradiated people living on those atolls.

April - Military ends use of Enewetak Atoll as support site for Pacific Missile Range at Kwajalein. Air Force quarantines Runit Island, site of several large nuclear tests, in Enewetak and denies access to anyone for any purpose. Radiation data suggests Runit will be unsafe for habitation for 240,000 years.

September - Conard medical team discovers two more Marshallese with thyroid abnormalities, one from Ailingnae and the other from Rongelap. To date, 18 out of 19 Rongelap people who were under 10 years old when exposed to radiation from "Bravo" in 1954, have had thyroid abnormalities. Enewetakese file suit in federal court in Hawaii to stop Air Force PACE project. Temporary injunction granted. In January 1973, federal judge orders program halted. U.S. Pentagon in June calls off the PACE tests in face of court action by Enewetakese.

October - AEC announces that coconut crabs on Bikini, considered a delicacy in the Marshalls, can be eaten on a restricted basis. (Even in 1978, they were still not safe for every day consumption.)

November - Lekoj Anjain, from Rongelap, one year old at the time of his exposure to radioactive fallout, dies of myelogenous leukemia, at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, U.S. (At age 13, he was taken to the U.S. for removal of thyroid nodules - his mother, father, and two brothers also had thyroid lesions surgically removed.)

December - U.S. begins separate negotiations with Mariana Islands towards that district becoming a U.S. commonwealth (commonwealth agreement signed in 1975, gains Congressional, then presidential approval in 1976. Key provision in agreement is military rights to two-thirds of Tinian Island, used in WWII to launch A-bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for an air naval base).

1973
February - Japanese medical survey team report following investigation trip to Marshalls in December, 1971 states: "...The body burden (of radiation) on the 'unexposed group' of Rongelap is actually higher than that on the people of other islands. This means that the people of Rongelap who were not exposed to the fallout, received a considerable amount of radioactive nuclides from the environment. Consequently, the 'unexposed' group actually became an 'exposed' group..." Ebeye population estimated at 5,260 people living on 53 available acres. Average of 10 persons per single room housing unit. Between 400-500 Marshallese employed at Kwajalein Missile Range (KMR).

(Waiting for the plane on Kwajalein) there was nowhere to go to but one of the restaurants. We went and sat down and tried to order a drink but the waiter asked for our passes and said we couldn't sit there. I don't see what they think we are going to do to them, three Marshallese women sitting in their restaurant. It's not like there's anything to spy on there. [...] When you go to Kwajalein you enter the terminal and they say Stop!, so everyone has to stop. Sit down! and we all sit down. You feel like everyone does what we're told, when to stop, when to sit, when to go. So that's democratic government.
Evenlyn Konou, Senator in the Marshallese government

1974
U.S. spends $435,000 for Bikini cleanup program.

June - AEC reports that nearly 28% of the Marshallese exposed to radiation originally have developed thyroid nodules or tumors, in contrast to an average 3 or 4% among Americans. Brookhaven National Laboratory study states that of 68 persons irradiated on Rongelap, 29 have developed thyroid abnormalities and 24 have undergone surgery in the U.S. for removal of the tissue. The study also notes significant growth retardation among Rongelap children.

September - Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on Enewetak released - states radioactivity in northern islands much greater than southern islands. Report suggests no habitation of northern islands, although islanders have stated a preference for these islands. EIS proposes using A-Bomb crater in Runit Island as "dump" for radioactive material removed from other islands, and covering it with a cement "cap."

December - 97 Bikinians now living on Bikini.

1975
April - Enewetak Chief, Johannes Peter appeals to U.S. Senate Armed Services Subcommittee to rid their atoll of radiation dangers, so the people can return home.

June - New radiological tests discover "higher levels of radioactivity than originally thought" on Bikini and it "appears to be hotter or questionable as to safety," states an Interior Department source.

August 6 - Data on local foods grown on Bikini island point to the need to restrict completely the use of pandanus, breadfruit, and coconut crabs, according to a preliminary report issued by the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA -formerly AEC). In addition, the report states that banana and papaya grown on Bikini are not recommended for consumption until they have been analyzed and declared acceptable.

October - Bikinians file law suit in Honolulu court, demanding complete scientific survey of Bikini to determine if it is fit for human life. Bikinians law suit maintains that U.S. government has refused to employ highly sophisticated technical equipment to measure radiation. Ebeye population estimated at 7,049 living in "deteriorating and substandard" housing units according to a Trust Territory study. Average of 12.3 persons per single room units.

December - For second year in a row, U.S. Congress refuses to approve funds to clean up radioactive debris on Enewetak for islanders to return home.

1976
July - U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Territorial and Insular Affairs, holds hearing on Ebeye and Majuro. Calling the situation at Ebeye Island a "patent violation of basic human rights" the Subcommittee demands strong corrective action on the part of the Departments of Defense and Interior. U.S. Congress appropriates $20 million for Enewetak cleanup. In addition, military agrees to provide equipment and personnel for massive project, estimated to cost well above $50 million.

On July 4th, 1976, only a matter of hours after Trust Territory Acting High Commissioner Peter Coleman had finished telling the United Nations Trusteeship Council there was no segregation at Kwajalein the command of Kwajalein Missile Range celebrated the American Blcentennial by closing Kwajalein Island to any Marshallese.... So American Independence was celebrated at Kwajalein Atoll by enforcement of all out and total segregation.
Congress of Micronesia Representative Ataji Balos, July, 1976

December - Washington Post exposes CIA surveillance of Micronesians during political status negotiations with the U.S. According to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Henry Kissinger authorized the ClA's "information collection" operations, which included electronic surveillance, as early as 1973. The Intelligence Committee report states that Kissinger granted permission for a study of "the possibility of exerting covert influence on key elements of the Micronesian independence movement" to "support U.S. strategic objectives."

December - Utirik islanders refuse to submit to examination by Dr. Knud Knudsen, during AEC's annual medical survey. Los Angeles Times points to "monumental culture clash" between the AEC scientists and the Marshallese underlying their refusal of medical examinations.

1977
March - U.S. Congress approves $1,083,000 to compensate the Rongelap and Utirik islanders whose thyroid problems and cancers appeared since 1963. 56 Enewetak islanders, who had lived on Ujelang Atoll in a U.S.-imposed exile since 1948, return to Japtan Island in southern Enewetak Atoll (Japtan is 6 miles from Runit Island, off-limits and considered the most radioactive in the atoll).

June - Study prepared for ERDA states, "All living patterns involving Bikini Island exceed Federal (radiation) guidelines for 30-year population doses."
Sudden increase in thyroid disease and cancer among Utirik people, which did not become apparent until 22 years after their exposure in 1954, forces government scientists to revise theories on radiation safety levels for human beings.
Army plans to clean up from northern area of Enewetak an estimated 125,000 cubic yards of non-contaminated debris, 7,300 cubic yards of radioactive material and another 79,000 cubic yards of soil contaminated with plutonium. The radioactive debris will be dumped into an A-bomb crater on Runit Island and sealed with a "cap" of cement. Besides plutonium, the radioactive contaminants at Enewetak are cesium 137, strontium 90 and cobalt 60. Army troops from Schofield Barracks in Hawaii begin arriving at Enewetak to carry out clean-up.

October - ERDA monitoring of Bikinians who returned in early 1970's shows an uptake in radioactive nuclides - "some of them are eating unapproved foods" high in cesium, according to ERDA scientist.
Following tests which show the Bikinians taking in higher than acceptable concentrations of cancer causing radiation from the water and food grown in the island's still radioactive soil, the U.S. government begins sending all food and drink to Bikini.

1978
Interior Department officials confirm seven new thyroid cases over past 18 months in Rongelap and Utirik islanders exposed to fallout. Counting these, 33 of Rongelap's 82 inhabitants at the time of the fallout have developed thyroid problems. Of 21 Rongelap children under 12 years of age at the time of the explosion, 19 have had thyroid tumors or problems.

March 30 - Kwajalein landowners and supporters reclaim island in off limits "Mid-Corridor" area of Kwajalein lagoon to protest use by Army. Handel Dribo, a landowner on Kwajalein states, "for 12 years my land was used by the military. l have not received one penny." Army goes ahead with missile test while Marshallese occupy island in hazardous area.

April - A Trust Territory report reveals the dire overcrowding and public health hazards on Ebeye Island. T.T. report states that:

  • at least 8,000 Marshallese live on Ebeye's 66 acres (less 13 used by the Coast Guard) giving it an extrapolated population density of 65,000 people/sq. mile compared with developed islands of Hawaii, 120 people/sq. mile and Washington, D.C., 12,400 people/sq. mile.
  • as of 1977, more than 13 people live in each single room unit on Ebeye, and in extreme cases up to 40 people in one unit.
  • unemployment rate on Ebeye is 36% of actual workforce.
  • Ebeye lagoon bacteria counts have been 25,000 times higher than deemed safe by the U.S. Public Health Service and the World Health Organization.
  • incidence of hepatitis on Ebeye is three times higher than that recorded on any Micronesian island.

May - Medical examinations conducted in April suggest that 139 people on Bikini are well above over-all radiation "safety" levels set by U.S. Examinations show that people are being exposed to strontium-90 as well as external radiation from fallout material still on the ground.
Interior Department officials describe the 75% increase in radioactive cesium found in Bikinians living on Bikini as "incredible." Interior states plans to move residents to another island "within 75 to 90 days."

July - US Congress appropriates more than $1 million in compensation for the inhabitants of Rongelap and Utirik who were exposed to radiation in 1954. Each person who had the thyroid gland or neurofibroma in the neck surgically removed or who has developed hypothyroidism, will receive $25,000. A payment of $25,000 will also be made to anyone who develops a radiation-related malignancy, such as leukemia. All residents on Utirik on March 1, 1954 will be given $1,000.

August - Interior Department decides to return all Marshallese now on Bikini Atoll to Kili Island, owing to high radiation levels on all Bikini Islands, including Enyu.

1979
From 1960 to 1979 there was an eight-fold increase in suicides among the Marshallese. The suicide rate among young Marshallese males is more than double that of the US.

July - More than 500 displaced people board a fleet of small boats and sail into the restricted lagoon of Kwajalein, heading for eight of their islands. The protest later spreads to other islands, including Kwajalein island itself, where the round of social events of the North American civilians are disrupted for the first time by the protesters.

September - The US signs a one-year Interim Use Agreement for Kwajalein worth $9 million a year. Five thousand landowners share $5 million and the remaining $4 million is entrusted to the Marshall Islands government for carrying out development programs.

1980
April 9 - 450 inhabitants of the Enewetok island return after their evacuation over thirty years ago. 4,000 people work for three years to clean up the island - a clean-up which costs US$ 100 million. But the coconuts on Enewetok have become fewer and smaller and there is still the fear that the people have just been brought back to be used as subjects for a research on the consequences of radiation. Thus, six months later, about a hundred people return to Ujelang.

1981
The government of the Marshall Islands signs the third Interim Use Agreement for Kwajalein against the express wishes of the landowners, who have formed themselves into a mutual help group, the Kwajalein Atoll Cooperation (KAC).

March 18 - The 167 native inhabitants of Bikini sue the US for recompensation of 450 million US$.

September 2 - On the third annual meeting of the Association of Chief Executives of the Pacific Basin, Marshall Islands President Amata Kabua suggests the use of Bikini and Enewetak atolls, which have already been contaminated by nuclear bomb tests, as storage facility for Japanese nuclear waste, which would otherwise be stored in the ocean.

During operation homecoming in 1982 I was an employee on Kwajalein Missile range and I was fired for taking part. There was an order for all employees not to take part but I didn't follow it. Instead I went to the camps and stayed there to help people because I believed they were doing the right thing. I believe I've lost all the benefits that I would have recieved being an employee of Kwajalein. But that's alright. For 16 years I worked with Global [the recruiting agency] or the Army. I was a maid. The wage I recieved at that time was about $4 an hour - good money. I sacrificed that to be with the people and fight for our rights.
Kinoj Mawilong

1982
March - One sixth of the 250 Marshallese directly affected by the Bravo test in 1954 have developed thyroid cancer. They have to be examined every year and to take pills their whole lives through.

May 30 - The Marshall Islands finalizes an agreement with the Reagan administration known as Compact of Free Association and calls for a national referendum on the agreement to held in August the same year. Contrary to the wishes of the KAC, the accord provides for a 50-year lease of the Kwajalein islands. Most of the other points of the agreement likewise clearly ignore the demands of the KAC.

June 19 - Kwajalein landowners organize a massive sail-in protest known as "Operation Homecoming". More than 1,000 Marshallese stage a resettlement protest by occupying Kwajalein Island and eleven other islands in the Kwajalein complex. The protesting Marshallese establish two camps on Kwajalein itself, making it clear that the people were there to stay. Interviews with many protesters involved in the civil disobedience reflect how much they enjoy living on clean islands catching fish and sea turtles, and the community spirit of the people working together. The army arrests 13 elected and traditional Kwajalein leaders, and cut off communications, food shipments and water to the camp sites. The soldiers begin daily body searches of Marshallese employees, and erect barbed wire, search lights and a fenced-in checkpoint.

August - A missile test scheuled on August 3 is postponed when Roi-Namur landowners refuse to leave their campsites and move into the shelters. The Army tries to persuade them with Cokes and ice cream. "We cannot help but feel amazed by the childish and insulting level by which the Department of Defence has chosen to address the Kwajalein people," comments the Marshall Islands Journal.

September - US ambassador to Micronesia Fred Zeder and a top Pentagon official say "The US will not negotiate under duress ... the demonstration must end before any negotiations can occur."

October 20 - The Marshallese Island gouvernment and the US conclude a new lease agreement for Kwajalein, ending the four-month protest. The new agreement spells out the following conditions:

  • A reduction from 50 to 30 years for the new lease
  • The establishment of a $10 million capital improvement fund for better living conditions on Ebeye Island
  • A return of six islands of the Kwajalein Atoll to Marshallese landowners
  • The granting of the Mid corridor lagoon area for use by Marshallese during certain periods of the year.

Under the trusteeship we have come to know and respect you as members of our American family, and now, as happens to all families, members grow up and leave home. I want you to know that we wish you all the best as you assume full responsibility for your domestic affairs and foreign relations, as you chart your own course for economic development, and as you take up your new status in the world as a sovereign nation. But you will always be family to us.
President Ronald Reagan, 21 Oct 1983, on the Compact of Free Association

1983
In the beginning of the year, a set of notes and letters known as the "Warren papers" (after their author, Army Col. Stafford Warren, who had been part of the staff at Bikini Atoll during the tests in 1946) become public. These papers show that the "Crossroads" cleanup was the antithesis of a well-planned, safety-conscious operation. Servicemen and civilians were forced to work day after day on research ships which had been close to the explosion - in some cases sleeping on board - with inadequate detection instruments and training. The papers cause a small scandal.

September - The Marshall Islands vote narrowly to accept the Compact of Free Association. It means that the Marshall Islands will become somewhat independent in 1986, with the US still taking charge of defence affairs and being allowed to use Kwajalein as a test area. The US promises to pay US$ 750 million in fifteen years as economic aid and compensation, but radiation survivors are banned from taking their cases against the US administration to US courts. Actually, Marshallese now always have to prove in the course of court suits that the damages for which they are demanding new compensation was not yet known at the time of earlier damage payments.

Senator Johnston: Is it understood that we have full plenary power to say that any activity [of the Marshallese Government] is military even though we may be wrong?
Mr. Zeder (US Ambassador to Micronesia): Yes, Sir.
Senator Johnston: Any activity whatsoever, we could determine to be military and prevent it?
Mr. Zeder: Yes, Sir.
Senator Johnston: I just want to be absolutely clear.
Hearing on the Compact, 24 May 1984

1984
June 10 - For the first time, a missile is destroyed 100 miles out in space, hit by another weapon. A Minuteman missile complete with "warhead", launched from California, had been intercepted by a missile launched from Meck, a tiny island of the Kwajalein atoll, the first 'success' of the Star Wars program.

1985
March 14 - A delegation of Rongelap people go to Washington to demand aid to move from their contaminated island. They request about US$ 27 million for resettlement to a new community on Mejato Island.

May - The people from Rongelap are brought to Mejato by the Greenpeace ship "Rainbow Warrior" after the US refused to transport them despite promises of some US officials to do so. It takes four trips to carry all the people plus cargo.

August 6 - The South Pacific Nuclear-Free Zone Treaty is signed in Rarotonga, the Cooke Islands' capital. In order to make it possible for the US to sign its protocols, the drafters had decided to establish a nuclear-free zone only south of the equator, excluding Micronesia. The treaty does not prohibit ballistic missiles nor facilities which are part of nuclear war systems or networks. Vanuatu, which had been the first country to impose a port ban on nuclear ships in 1982, refuses to sign because the contract does not go far enough. The King of Tonga, who wishes to be free to invite the US navy into his country's ports, also does not sign.

1986
January 13 - The Compact of Free Association is ratified by the US President under Public Law 99-239.

Spring - Ebeye islanders organize another sail-in. The 150-200 protesters, mostly women - because the men had been told that they would lose their jobs if they took part - are finally removed by force by Marshallese police.

November 29 - An anti-pollution treaty is signed by sixteen nations, among them France, US, Australia and New Zealand. The treaty commits the countries to "prevent, reduce and control pollution from any source in the South Pacific Region".

1987
December - US officials say the Marshall Islands are a possible site for the storage of nuclear waste. On December 16, the Marshallese president Amata Kabua sends a telegram to Washington, showing interest in the plan and in a bidding.

1989
A total amount of US$ 25 billion has been spent for research and testing in the Star Wars program since its start in 1984.

1990
September - In a suit demanding recompensation, the people of Enewetak islands claim that the US violated the United Nations trusteeship agreement and its own promises to care for them after they were moved off Enewetak. They declare that a total of five islands of the Enewetak Atoll were partially or totally destroyed by nuclear bomb tests while Runit Island was made uninhabitable because tonnes of plutonium-saturated sand and debris were dumped into a crater on the island and covered with concrete. The clean-up finished in 1980, they further state, did not repair damage to the atoll's lagoon. Furthermore, long-term damage to the agricultural productivity was caused by the removal of extensive amounts of plant material and topsoil that were contaminated with plutonium.

1992
July - The lagoon of the Bikini Atoll, where the wrecks of over 90 American and Japanese warships lie under about 100 feet (30 meters) of water, will be promoted as a diving spot for tourists from the US and Japan, says Jack Niedenthal, liaison officer on Bikini: "We've got a gold mine down there. Everyone who dived on Bikini says it was the best dive of his life. ... Where else in the world can you dive down to atomic-bombed ships?"

1994
February 1 - An unsigned document with the title "Long-term storage and Permanent Disposal of Nuclear Materials - a Proposal for a Feasibility Study on the Marshall Islands" becomes public in the US and renews the discussion about waste storage on the Marshalls. Diplomatic sources say it has "at least gone through the hands of the Marshallese Ambassador".

June 5 - An article appears in the Marshall Islands Journal saying that the Marshall Islands government had prepared a detailed proposal for conducting a feasibility study on the long-term storage and permanent disposal of nuclear material in one of the islands. It is pointed out that a lot of nuclear waste will come from dismantling US and Russian weapons.

July - On the basis of the findings of a scientific study began in 1991, US officials say that it would be possible for people to return to Rongelap Island, but add that food would have to be imported.

1995
With the economic aid from the US (in connection with the Compact of Free Association), the Marshallese government has tried to build a touristic infrastructure. Marshall Islands does attract 5,000 tourists a year. The Marshallese government, however, manages to get just US$ 3 million from tourism, the export of coconuts and the issuance of fishing permits, while spending on imports amounts to about $ 35 million. The promised goal of independence turns out to be a joke. As long as the money from the US comes, some problems can be drowned in American beer, but, as president Kabua claims, the "actual way of live is unsustainable, incapable of being financed further". The Asian Development Bank estimates a drop of the average annual per capita income from $1050 (1990) to $350 when the US stops paying in 2001.

May - The Bikini Council votes overwhelmingly against pursuing the proposal to store nuclear waste on islands contaminated by nuclear tests.

1996
March - The National Security Council of the US shows interest in the project of the 1995-founded company US Fuel and Security Services to provide a final storage facility on an American island in the Pacific Ocean. The firm claims to have already paid millions of dollars as deposit for the purchase of the island, whose name was not divulged. Partners for the whole project, that will cover complete service for nuclear power plants from uranium mining, to transport and storage are the US-company Bethlehem Steel and the German "Gesellschaft für Nuklear Behälter (GNB)".
The Marshalls Foreign Minister Phillip Muller has asked a United States Senate committe to launch an independent review of US scientific data by the National Academy of Sciences. In fact, this is also one of the recommandations of Presidnent Clinton's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. The findings of this committee contracdicted the information provided by the US gouvernment since the 1950s by claiming that the Bravo test was only one of the many nuclear blasts that exposed Marshall islanders to radiation and that more than the four atolls (Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap and Utirik) were exposed to fallout. Question concerning the use of Marshall Islanders in medical experiments left unanswered.

April - In a meeting in Moscow, US president Clinton suggests to Russian president Yeltsin that an international facility be built for the final storage of nuclear waste. Clinton says it would stop reprocessing and limit the danger of plutonium proliferation. Apart from the profit to be made, the facility would be a sign of the goodwill between the US and Russia in working together for disarmament and safety.

May - The Chairman of the House Committee of Resources and the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Native American and Insular Affairs write to the US Secretary of Energy, Hazel O'Leary, urging a positive response to the plan for a feasibility study on storage of low-level waste on an uninhabited island of the Marshall Islands. This marks the first official US support for the plan of the Marshallese government.

Sources:

  • Jane Dibblin: Day Of Two Suns, London, 1988;
  • Micronesia Support Committee: Marshall Islands - A Chronology 1944-1978, Honululu, 1978; Minority Rights Group: The Pacific: Nuclear Testing and Minorities, London, 1991;
  • Glenn Alcalay: Missiles over Micronesia: Marshall Islanders' responses to "Star Wars" testing at Kwajalein, New York, 1995;
  • Various articles from: De Volkskrant (NL), Der Spiegel (FRG), Japan Times, Die Tageszeitung (FRG), De Wereld Morgen (NL), Pacific Islands Monthly, Pacific News Bulletin (Australia), Süddeutsche Zeitung (FRG), Trouw (NL), WISE News Communique (NL), WISE Nieuwskommunikee (NL), Islands Business Pacific, Pacific Report.

 

Russian high enriched uranium for France

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#454
21/06/1996
Article

(June 21, 1996) Presidents Yeltsin and Chirac of Russia and France signed a bilateral accord for their nuclear fuel cycle industries on 19 April 1996. One important aspect of this accord was to make possible the supply of Russian HEU (high enriched uranium) to France's atomic energy commission - the Commissariat Energie Atomique (CEA) - at two research reactors, the High Flux Reactor (RHF) in Grenoble and the Orphee facility in Saclay.

(454.4490) WISE-Amsterdam - This agreement will compensate RHF for its having forfeited rights to US-origin HEU. The US ceased supplying HEU to European research reactors in 1992. This part of the broader 19 April agreement was signed in Paris on 7 June. The accord requires Moscow to provide the RHF with 55 kg (121 lb) of the enriched uranium annually, over a nine-year period. Another 125 kg (275 lb) will go to a research reactor at a CEA centre in Saclay. These amounts are much more than expected. In May, it was estimated that Russia would agree to sell about 100 kg HEU to France. In April, French officials said the contract called for the sale of only a 'negligible' quantity of HEU, most of which would be used by the RHF at Grenoble.

The deal will free other French HEU for transfer to other Euratom countries, such as for the new FRM-2 research reactor in Munich, Germany. The US-Euratom nuclear cooperation agreement allows France to freely transfer US-origin HEU to other Euratom countries. Through the deal, strong resistance from the side of the US against continuing use of HEU in Europe has been circumvented. It is a blow to the US non-proliferation policy.

Previously, RHF negotiated with Nukem for the transfer of part of 400 kg of HEU obtained by Nukem from the former THTR-330 in Germany, which was refabricated by AEA in Dounreay, UK. Another part of that HEU was made available by Nukem to the European joint research reactor in Petten, the Netherlands. Nukem presently owns about half the original amount; this means it still has another 200 kg of HEU originating from the THTR. In return for the sale of the HEU to France, Russia will be allowed use of French nuclear research facilities, including conducting irradiation trials at the RHF.

The HEU deal involved only Russia and France; there is as yet no nuclear trade agreement between Russia and Euratom. A Moscow diplomatic source said that France's status as a Nuclear Weapon State under the NPT 'made it easier' to negotiate the transfer of nuclear weapons-grade material. Moscow raised non-proliferation restrictions which are said to be stricter than those applied in the US-Euratom agreement, and which would be 'unacceptable' to Euratom as the basis of an EU-Russian nuclear trade accord. In its nuclear deal with France, Russia has not provided prior consent for retransfer of the HEU from France to other Euratom countries. This would be unacceptable to Euratom, if it were to forge a nuclear agreement with Russia. Germany next?

Last fall, following a revelation that Russia had offered to supply HEU to EU, officials at the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMFT) hotly denied that any plans were afoot to use Russian fuel at the planned FRM-2 research reactor in Garching, Munich. On 26 March, however, Bernd Neumann, parliamentary state secretary for the BMFT, reiterated a previous government statement issued in December 1995, that 'it can no longer be denied that talks with Russia will also include HEU supply for the FRM-2'. Neumann indicated that Germany would now be willing to strike a bilateral deal for acquiring Russian HEU for the FRM-2 reactor. Germany would be prepared to give an appropriate non-proliferation guarantee, provided the EU agreed upon this first.

In the meantime, Euratom and the European Commission are seeking to negotiate a nuclear trade accord with Russia, without any Russian consent rights for intra-Euratom transfer of nuclear materials.

Sources:

  • Nuclear Fuel, 6 May 1996, p.3
  • Nuclear Fuel, 20 May 1996, pp.1,2
  • Reuter, 7 June 1996

Contact: Nuclear Control Institute Washington, 1000 Conneticut Av NW Suit 704, Washington DC 20036, US
Tel:+1-202-822 8444; Fax:+1-202-452 0892
E-mail: nci@access.digex.net

Towards a ban on nuclear testing

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#454
21/06/1996
Article

(June 21, 1996) At this very moment, the negotiations at the Conference on Disarmament (CD) in Geneva are in their final stage. A Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is targetted to be finished by the end of June, when the second session of this year's CD ends. The following article puts the current CTBT negotations in a historical context and looks at the worth of the CTBT anno 1996.

(454.4497) Dirk Jan Dullemond - A Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) has been the most sought after and the most elusive of arms control agreements of the nuclear age. A CTBT has always been regarded as a first step to curb the nuclear arms race. Now that we are on the verge of reaching agreement on a CTBT, it remains a question whether this agreement will have any value. Apparently it is time for those countries that have perfected their devastating weapons to block others from developing sophisticated deadly arms. At the same time, there is hardly any need for the have-nots to test nuclear weapons. The reasoning goes: the recipe for a crude bomb is already known, why still bother to perfect it?

When a CTBT has been achieved, ratified and in force, it does not mean that the (nuclear) arms race has come to an end or even curbed. New methods are under development, and it will soon be possible to design new nuclear weapons using computers. Various programs in the US and France point in this direction. By offering this technology to the other members of the exclusive nuclear club, they will continue to control their world interests.

Early years
Disarmament issues have been on the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly from its very first session. The first resolution passed by the body dealt with the establishment of the Atomic Energy Commission. In this resolution, the General Assembly expressed the hope of making specific proposals for the elimination of nuclear weapons. In actuality, the resolution was the first attempt to limit the membership of the nuclear club.

On 29 August 1949, Russia joined the US as a country with nuclear weapons capability. The UK tested its bomb on 3 October 1952 at Monte Bello (Australia), France on 13 February 1960 in Algeria, China on 16 October 1964 at Lop Nor, and India in 1974. The practice developed over the years was to situate nuclear testing sites in what were regarded as remote and empty areas, far from densely populated areas. The best places were remote islands (colonies), the next best were far-off deserts. In these sites, it was easy to remove the few inhabitants, and experiment on soldiers (it is important to know how soldiers react to nuclear explosi-ons!). Any bad effect would remain unseen and could easily be covered up.

When the fallout of the Bravo test on 1 March 1954 contaminated some Japanese fishermen (and eventually killed them), worldwide political and scientific protest against testing resulted. India's Prime Minister Nehru called on 2 April for a "standstill agreement on testing", the first initiative of its kind. Despite concerns about the development of nuclear weapons and their proliferation, the US resisted international pressure for a comprehensive test ban. The US even contributed to nuclear proliferation by cooperating with the British in developing their nuclear capability and later by cooperating with France. In contrast, the Soviet Union endorsed a test ban in its extensive arms control agenda in mid-1955.

On the basis of this proposal, the UK, US and the USSR conducted initial negotiations in October 1958. These negotiations were hampered by a complex of domestic and alliance politics and security and strategy questions. Public concerns over fallout from above-ground nuclear tests fueled the push for a test ban. On 31 March 1958, the USSR announced that it would undertake a testing moratorium on the condition that the US and the UK would follow. Based on the results of an Expert Conference (on verification issues) in Geneva, the US and UK did follow on 22 August. The moratorium lasted until September 1961 when the USSR conducted the biggest test ever - a 58-Megatom device.

In October 1958, the Conference on Discontinuance of Nuclear Weapon Tests started; it met almost continuously until January 1962. The break-up of the Soviet-China collaboration, the first French test in February 1960 and the U-2 incident frustrated an attempt to conclude a comprehensive test ban at the Big Four Summit Conference in Paris in May 1960. The main differences were on the treaty itself and on the inclusion of verification and on-site inspection procedures (a numbers game). The US and UK wanted a majority-vote international controlling organization.

To reinvigorate arms control discussions, the UK, US and USSR sponsored the expansion of the Ten-Nation Committee Disarmament Committee (East-West oriented) into the Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Committee (ENDC) in 1961 (with the addition of non-aligned countries). In 1962, the test ban issue was introduced and in March that year a subcommittee was formed. The ENDC was later transformed into the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament (CCD) and is now called the Conference on Disarmament (CD), and based in Geneva.

The Cuba missile crises of October 1962 triggered a new attempt to reach agreement. The Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) was concluded in July, after ten days of negotiation between the US, UK and USSR. The treaty, which went into force on 10 October 1963, permitted only underground tests. In a provision on the amendment procedure, the treaty allowed itself to be changed into a CTBT. The ratification by the US was premised on a "vigorous program of underground testing", the resumption of atmospheric testing if the SU did, the use of facilities to improve detection of test-ban violations and the maintenance by the US of strong weapons laboratories. The PTBT certainly was a milestone, but was still very much circumscribed by the realities of the time. The US and USSR believed that they knew enough to be able to go underground and continue nuclear weapons development. It was only in 1977 that new initiatives were undertaken to reach a CTBT. France and China never signed the PTBT and, despite public protests, continued atmospheric testing until 1974 and 1980, respectively. By this time, they too knew enough and could go underground.

Sixties and Seventies
With France and China joining the nuclear club, the US, UK and USSR recognized the need to stop horizontal proliferation. Negotiations on non-proliferation dragged in the ENDC until the US, UK and USSR literally drew up and pushed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). As a result of the NPT, the membership of the nuclear club was limited to the five declared countries. The preamble adopted the same wording as that in the 1963 PTBT and pointed to the discontinuance of nuclear tests as a primary step to curb the arms race. Consequently, the comprehensive test ban and nuclear disarmament were linked with the NPT and this linkage became a major main stumbling block at each of the NPT review conferences. The recognition of the five nuclear weapons-capable countries in this treaty is for India, among others, still a good reason not to become a member.

Given the inability and unwillingness to stop testing, the two superpowers shifted their attention to arms reduction measures. The arms reduction talks resulted in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) treaties. In 1974, the US and USSR signed the Threshold Test Ban Treaty (TTBT). The treaty imposed limits on nuclear blasts; however, the limits were high enough so as not to hamper their testing programs. The TTBT did not address the Peaceful Nuclear Explosions (PNE) - both nations where still pursuing a program of research in this field. The TTBT however provided a verification means through National Technical Means (NTM) and an exchange of seismic data to assist in yield determination. Both nations held negotiations on the PNEs from October 1974 until April 1976. The resulting Peaceful Nuclear Explosion Treaty (PNET) provided for an extensive data exchange on PNEs and On-Site Inspections (OSIs) for certain group explosions. The PNET placed an upper limit on the explosions allowed, but still enabled countries to conduct "Peaceful Nuclear Explosions" and collect military data from such explosions. Under the PNE program, the US conducted 27 experiments between 1961 and 1973; the USSR conducted 124 experiments between 1965 and 1988. The most famous of all the PNEs was the 1974 nuclear test in India, which was labelled as peaceful but clearly served military purposes. As a result of this test, India was denied access to international knowledge and it had to develop its own indigenous nuclear complex and weapons system.

Eighties and Nineties
This period is clearly marked by the START treaties, the "end of the Cold War", the disintegration of the USSR and the Gulf War. Public opinion massively resisted nuclear weapons tests and the huge number of nuclear weapons.

In 1977, US President Carter raised the CTBT issue again; the USSR responded positively. Carter, however, faced major opposition. With Reagan's Star Wars plan, the negotiations came to a halt in 1980. It was only at the end of the Cold War, the demise of the USSR and a complete change in the geopolitical situation that the US considered it safe to restart negotiations. From August 1985 until February 1987, the USSR observed a unilateral moratorium. In the early nineties, the Semipalatinsk testing grounds in the USSR was closed due to public pressure. In April 1992, France announced its moratorium. The US followed in October; Congress envisaged a halt on testing in 1996. Because the UK depended on the US Nevada Test Site, it was deprived of a testing capability by the US moratorium.

After the NPT extension conference in May 1995, France ended its moratorium on nuclear tests. Its series of six tests provoked massive international protests. China, which resumed testing two days after the conference, conducted it's latest test on June 8 and will most likely perform one more test before entering a self-imposed moratorium of ten years (linked to a CTBT). Meanwhile, tension is rising between Pakistan and India as a result of the Indian nuclear program. Not to be outdone by its long-time rival, Pakistan is now also developing nuclear weapons.

With respect to non-proliferation efforts, the role of the declared nuclear powers is undoubtedly ambiguous. It has become clear, as illustrated in the cases of South Africa and Iraq, that nuclear weapons can be developed without nuclear tests, that the information for making a crude bomb are "on the street" - it "leaks" through the numerous trade control agreements. A nuclear weapon can be designed using off-the-shelf computer technology; components can be freely obtained. Iraq proved to be a laboratory for the very intrusive inspections of the IAEA, the same body that was denied knowledge by US intelligence of the existing covert nuclear program in Iraq. South Africa admitted and stopped its secret nuclear weapons program when it signed the NPT in late 1994.

The latest round of negotiations on a CTBT was opened in 1994 at the CD. The negotiations in the CD in Geneva are currently in their final stage. A CTBT is targetted to be finished by the end of June when the second session of the CD of this year ends. The setting of the target date is the only tangible result of last year's NPT extension conference. The topics for a CTBT are as old as the nuclear age. The conflicts over preamble, scope, verification, on-site inspections, entry into force and international board reflect the deeply rooted mistrust between the five declared nuclear powers, the three threshold countries (India, Pakistan and Israel) and the latent nuclear powers (e.g. Germany, Japan).

During the negotiation process, a rolling text was produced with 1220 square brackets. In the early phase, a threshold of zero wasn't even zero, but a low threshold, reflecting the state of nuclear development of each country. At this moment an Australian text proposal is widely accepted as zero, meaning zero.

The Chinese recently gave up their position on PNEs, clearing the way for consensus on the Australian scope text (now all the five nuclear powers support it). The text proposal by Ramakers, chair of the negotiations during the current session, provides enough openings for the Chinese to bring up the PNE issue in a review conference. India still is a major stumbling block in the process - a pity, when one considers its stance up until CTBT negotiations began to get serious. India, China and Pakistan are in a security deadlock which perhaps needs to be unravelled. At the very least, some kind of massaging in the relations of the three countries needs to be done. Another problem is the resentment felt by India for not being recognized as a member of the nuclear club.

The current chairman's draft envisages a review of the CTBT (including the preamble) after ten years. A loophole still exists for hydro nuclear explosions and hydro dynamic tests and other laboratory experiments. As for the wish of most of the non-aligned countries and others (the so-called third world countries), no perspective has been included on a time-based disarmament, a cut on fissile materials, etc. Except for a test ban, the preambles of the PTBT and NPT remain a dead letter. So what's the use of this ban?

If a CTBT had been concluded in the early sixties it would have been a disarmament measure. A CTBT concluded at this time can only be regarded as another non-proliferation measure imposed by the five (declared) nuclear powers on the rest of the world. The southern half of the world now renounces a nuclear status by declaring Nuclear Free Zones. When will the northern hemisphere follow?

It is very clear that when a CTBT is achieved, signed and ratified, the nuclear club of five and their allies will have struck another blow at the rest of the world. The club members allow the perfection of nuclear weapons among themselves, test until they are satisfied and then close the deal to deprive others from this knowledge. What is new is the attempt to block new weapons development through the preamble, but how this will work in practice remains to be seen.

France and the US exchanged data on the latest series of French nuclear tests at Mururoa. The French have access to US data. The US are also offering both France and China computer facilities to continue developing nuclear weapons without nuclear tests. Similar situations exist for the Russian and UK alliances with the US. The US still wants to perform a series of six "sub-critical" tests in Nevada and has massive programs to maintain its nuclear design capability, this reaction is similar to the reaction when achieving the PTBT in 1963. One of the few results of a CTBT could be the slowdown in the development of such new exotic weapons as nuclear-powered lasers, radiation weapons, microwave weapons and micro-nukes. But without further treaties and other security arrangements, this development will proceed as before.

To this date, we have counted 2045 nuclear bomb explosions and the Chinese still have one more test to go in September. There are no signs of nuclear test sites being closed down and reclaimed - once a negotiation option for the CTBT. Even if we think positively and assume that a CTBT will be reached within the coming weeks or two months, we still face a terrible legacy of polluted testing grounds, displaced people, people suffering from radiation effects, enormous military nuclear complexes, a legacy of nuclear weapons, weapons-grade material, nuclear waste and many ways of proliferating nuclear material and spreading weapons-design knowledge to the rest of the world (and eager countries). The nuclear arms race will not end with this long sought CTBT. The abuse of (indigenous) peoples will not end either. Grassroots efforts will have to continue.

Literature:

  • "Testing Times, The Global Stake in a Nuclear Test Ban", P. Bidwai and A. Vanaik, 1996 Dag Hammarskjold Foundation
  • "Nuclear weapon tests prohibition or limitation?", Goldblat and Cox, 1988 Oxford University Press
  • Kernwapens op hun retour?, Bart v.d. Sijde, 1995 Studiecentrum voor Vredesvraagstukken, KU Nijmegen
  • Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists May/June 1996
  • Statement by Ambassador Miguel Marin-Bosch at the opening of the 1995 session of the Conference on Disarmament, 31 January 1995
  • Disarmament Diplomacy 1, 2, 3 1996
  • International Herald Tribune, 7 June 1996
  • De Volkskrant (NL), 16 March 1996.

Contact: NKC, c/o Herenstraat 9, 6701 DG Wageningen, Netherlands
Tel: +31-317-423481
Fax: +31-317-423588
Email: epp92@antenna.nl

Uranium shortages?

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#454
21/06/1996
Article

(June 21, 1996) World uranium production will have to be increased by about 70 per cent in the coming years, if future reactor requirements are to be met. This is the conclusion that has been reached by the pro-nuclear International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the basis of its calculations.

(454.4494) WISE-Amsterdam - World uranium production has fallen far below reactor requirements over the last five years. This has been due to a large draw-down of existing uranium stockpiles: an estimated 271 million pounds of uranium since 1990. The uranium production shortfall in 1996 was about 600 million pounds. Because of shrinking uranium stockpiles, the price of uranium has soared from $7 per pound in 1995 to $16.5 per pound in April 1996, for short-term contracts (the so-called spot price). The exact amount of current world uranium stockpiles is not known, but is probably enough for the consumption needs of all nuclear reactors for five years.

Ten per cent of the uranium needed for future consumption may come from dismantled nuclear warheads; five per cent from reprocessed uranium. About five per cent of uranium consumption may be replaced by the use of plutonium, in the form of mixed uranium/plutonium fuel (MOX fuel). This leaves about 80 per cent of reactor requirements through 2010 still to be met from new production. Uranium firms are responding to the need. Cameco from Canada, for instance, plans to increase its uranium production by 50 per cent by 2005.

Annual world uranium consumption is estimated to grow from 157 million pounds uranium oxide (about 65,000 tons) in 1996, to 172 million pounds (72,000 tons) in 2005. Since the number of nuclear reactors in the future is more likely to decrease rather than increase, this growth assumption of 11 per cent is rather strange. All the more so because of the worldwide trend of higher burn-up (which means more efficient use) of nuclear fuel.

Australia and the US are the most likely candidates for bringing new uranium mines to production, but Niger, Namibia and South Africa are other candidates. It is likely that the new liberal government in Australia will develop dormant uranium projects by the turn of the century. The former 'three mines policy' will be abandoned. New mines will mean of course new environmental pollution and disasters.

Sources:

  • IAEA Bulletin, nr. 1, 1996, p.47
  • Nuclear Fuel, 20 May 1996, p.5,6

Contact: Peter Diehl, WISE Uranium, p.diehl@sik.de and/or
John Hallam, Friends of the Earth Australia, PO Box A474, Sydney NSW 2001, Australia
Tel: +61-2-281 4070
Fax: +61-2-281 5216
E-mail: foesydney@peg.apc.org