MAJURO — In an effort to breath life into an appeal for more than $2 billion in nuclear test compensation, the Marshall Islands has hired a former U.S. attorney general and two-time Pennsylvania governor to review the nuclear test settlement between the U.S. and the Marshall Islands.
Marshall Islands officials are hoping that the hiring of former Attorney General and Pennsylvania Gov. Richard Thornburgh will bring visibility to a nuclear compensation petition to the U.S. Congress that has languished for nearly two years.
The U.S. Congress in 1986 approved a $150 million trust fund that paid $270 million to four atolls most affected by the nuclear tests: Bikini and Enewetak, sites of 67 American nuclear tests from 1946-1958, and Rongelap and Utrik atolls, which were exposed to high-level nuclear fallout from the 1954 “Bravo” hydrogen bomb test at Bikini. Some funding went for medical treatment programs and $45 million was allotted to a Nuclear Claims Tribunal to compensate personal injury and any other claims that arose.
The Tribunal awarded — but has not been able to pay — more than $70 million to 1,700 islanders who experienced cancers and other radiation-related health problems. During a 10 year adjudication process, it also awarded more than $1 billion to Bikini and Enewetak for compensation and nuclear cleanup funding. Claims for Rongelap and Utrik are now pending with the Tribunal, even though all of its funds have long-since been exhausted by the volume of personal injury claims and land damages awards. Tribunal chairman Oscar deBrum has said repeatedly since 2001 that U.S.-provided compensation funding is inadequate to address the American nuclear test legacy.
The Tribunal’s awards — both land damage and personal injury — form the core of the Marshall Islands’ petition to U.S. Congress seeking additional compensation.
Marshall Islands officials comment that in 1986, when the U.S. compensation package was approved by the U.S. Congress, Marshall Islanders had lawsuits in U.S. courts totaling more than $5 billion. At the time, a U.S. judge rejected the claims, saying that the U.S. Congress had approved an “alternative forum” — the Nuclear Claims Tribunal — for resolving test claims. Officials in Majuro say that the Tribunal has demonstrated the obvious inadequacy of the compensation package.
But getting the attention of Congress, particularly in the post-September 11 period, has been difficult. In order for Congress to make an informed determination about the need for additional compensation, an authoritative and impartial evaluation of the awards made by the Nuclear Claims Tribunal is imperative, said Marshall Islands Ambassador Banny deBrum in a statement from the Washington Embassy about the hiring of Thornburgh.
The study of the nuclear test compensation program will be conducted by Thornburgh, currently counsel to the law firm of Kirkpatrick and Lockhart LLP.
Marshall Islands President Kessai Note stopped over in Washington, D.C. en route from Rome after the World Food Summit late and met with Thornburgh late last month to formalize the retention of his firm for this study.
The study will be conducted independently and will provide both governments with an impartial evaluation of the operations of the Nuclear Claims Tribunal, and thereby provide Congress with critical information with respect to the legal sufficiency for the remedies available to the survivors of the nuclear testing program under the settlement, Banny deBrum said.
