THIS WEEK IN MARSHALL ISLANDS HISTORY: "The Big Bang at Enewetak"
Fifty-four years ago, on November 1, the first nuclear fusion device ever deployed was detonated at the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's (AEC) Pacific Proving Ground (PPG) at Enewetak Atoll, in the Marshall Islands.
"The immense ball of flame, cloud of dark dust, evaporated steel tower, melted sand for 1,000 feet, 10 million tons of water rising out of the lagoon, waves subsiding from a height of 80 feet to seven feet in 3 miles, were all repeated in various degrees, 43 times on Enewetak." -(US Department of Energy)
The Mike Shot, the first of two tests in the Operation Ivy series, was not a bomb in the combat sense.
The Mike device, dubbed the Sausage, was constructed on the remote island of Elugelap, located in the northern part of the atoll. It stood three stories tall, weighed over 82 tons, and used liquid deuterium, a cryogenic fuel.
Mike was detonated 7:14.59, local Enewetak time, and yielded 10.4 megatons, or some 750 times larger than the Hiroshima bomb.
It completely obliterated Eluklap, as well as some nearby islets, leaving an underwater crater a 6240 feet wide and 164 feet deep.
Powered mostly by fission, Mike showered high levels of radiation over the atoll.
The burning mushroom cloud reached 100,000 feet elevation. Observers said they would never forget the
"boiling sky" overhead.
The test was the tenth of 43 conducted on Enewetak and the fourth largest every conducted by the United States. A total of 67 tests were conducted in the Marshall Islands from 1946 to 1958
In 1947, the Enewetak people had been removed from their home island to Ujelang Atoll, where they suffered grave privations, including periods of near starvation.
The 4-5 years promised exile ended up being over 33 years, with nuclear tests continuing from 1948 through 1958. In the 1960's, Enewetak was the target and impact area for tests of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The Pacific Cratering Experiments Program (PACE) was conducted in the 1970's.
The nuclear testing program, missile testing, rocket test firings, and the cratering experiments program caused serious damage to Enewetak Atoll. Five islands in the atoll - Bokombako (sometimes referred to as Elugelab), Louj (sometimes referred to as Lidilbut), Bokaidrik, Boken(including a small unnamed islet to the west of Boken), and Eleleron - were completely or partially vaporized by the nuclear tests.
The remaining islands on the north half of the atoll, where the nuclear testing, rocket test firings and cratering experiments occurred, were severely damaged. The major residential island of
Enjebi, was heavily contaminated with radioactivity, as was the island of Runit. Debris and wreckage -- radioactive and nonradioactive -- littered many of the islands. The atoll’s lagoon was seriously damaged. Large bomb craters covered many of the islands.
The entire atoll was agriculturally devastated: vegetation was completely stripped from many of the islands, and nearly all plants of agricultural and economic value on the atoll were totally destroyed.
In 1980, the US conducted a massive clean-up which still left only the southern half of the atoll inhabitable.
Runit Island contains more than 110,000 cubic yards of plutonium-contaminated soil and debris that during the cleanup operation were collected from throughout the atoll, mixed with cement and water to form a slurry, placed in a bomb crater on Runit, and covered by a concrete dome 18 inches thick and 370 feet in diameter. Runit is expected to be extremely radioactive and dangerous for at least the next 24,000 years and therefore requires a long-term stewardship program similar to long-term stewardship programs, including a regular monitoring regime, for waste sites containing radioactive material required in the United States.
Today, Enewetak residents are monitored at the on-island Radiological Lab which supports the permanent whole body counting system, assessing radiation doses from internally deposited cesium-137.
Use of the land is limited, and food must be imported.
The people of Enewetak continue to seek fair compensation for loss of land, livelyhood, and health. A lawsuit has been filed with U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
- by Aenet Rowa, November 1, 2006
kratery na Runit
