MAJURO — Gaining U.S. congressional backing for nuclear test compensation of more than $1 billion is going to be an uphill struggle for the Marshall Islands. But the attorney for the islanders who live at the former U.S. nuclear test site on Enewetak Atoll is optimistic that Congress will support additional compensation if it is approached correctly.
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the economic recession in the U.S., and many new members of Congress who are unfamiliar with the Marshall Islands are among factors that make it difficult to gain headway for increased nuclear test compensation, said Davor Pevec, the Honolulu-based lawyer for the people of Enewetak, whose atoll was the ground zero for 43 nuclear tests. A total of 67 nuclear tests were conducted at Bikini and Enewetak from 1946 to 1958.
In late 2000, the Marshall Islands government filed a petition with the U.S. Congress seeking more than $1 billion in nuclear test cleanup-related compensation, damages and personal injury claims. In addition, it is seeking an additional $2.3 billion in health care funding for Marshall Islanders over the next 50 years.
After 18 months with no official reply to the compensation request, last month, five ranking members of the Congress sent a letter to President Bush requesting the administration review the compensation petition from the Marshall Islands.
“People get depressed from the reaction the petition and nuclear test compensation issues have been receiving in Washington,” Pevec said in an interview. “I’m optimistic that if it is approached right, it will work.”
Pevec said that in years past, “when Congress has the facts, it has taken into consideration the needs of people in the Marshall Islands. The U.S. has recognized its moral and legal responsibility.”
Enewetak is the only one of the atoll seriously affected by the U.S. testing program where people have resettled their islands. From 1977-1980, the U.S. Army conducted a limited nuclear cleanup of the southern islands in Enewetak, and the people—after 33 years in exile—returned home in 1980.
An aggressive replanting program to revegetate the islands devastated by nuclear testing and U.S. facilities has begun to turn Enewetak into a livable environment, though numerous concerns remain about radiation exposure.
Pevec pointed out that the U.S.-conducted nuclear cleanup in the 1970s did not touch the heavily contaminated northern islands and these remain off-limits to this day. A major portion of Enewetak’s claim for additional compensation is to complete a cleanup on the northern islands so that people can resettle there in the future.
Pevec acknowledged that gaining congressional support will not be a quick process. But Pevec believes that the Marshall Islands move to gain adequate nuclear test compensation is dependent on making three points very clearly to members of Congress:
• Radiation safety guidelines have changed drastically since the early 1980s, when the Compact of Free Association providing initial nuclear test compensation was first negotiated. Twenty years ago the cleanup exposure safety standard was 500 milirems of radiation a year. In the late 1990s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reduced the maximum nuclear cleanup exposure standard to just 15 milirems, a standard that the Majuro-based Nuclear Claims Tribunal has also adopted and one which increases the cost to safely cleanup nuclear test-affected islands.
• The $150 million nuclear compensation fund provided by the first Compact was a “rough estimation” of the cost of the damages, Pevec said. “There was no attempt made by the early negotiators to quantify the actual damage from the U.S. nuclear test program,” he said. “The $150 million figure was pulled out of the air, there were no facts or research behind it.” He described it as a “downpayment” on the actual cost of the damages, which now total in the billions of dollars.
• The U.S. and the Marshall Islands governments agreed to a process—through the U.S.-funded Nuclear Claims Tribunal—to determine and adjudicate all claims. The Tribunal subjected the personal injury and land damage claims to a rigorous and lengthy review process using scientists, lawyers, doctors, anthropologists and other experts, Pevec said.
“The Congress needs to know about this,” he said. “The Tribunal developed a good record on the land damage cases and the personal injury claims. It followed U.S. constitutional requirements, U.S. laws and used highly qualified scientists, appraisers and anthropologists.”
