Hiroshima after the atomic bomb explosion(NARA, Still Pictures Branch)

“Baker” blast at Bikini, July 25, 1946(John L. Sullivan Papers, Truman Library)

David Bradley, No Place to Hide, 1948

North End of Yucca Flat, Nevada Test Site(U.S. DOE Photograph)

“Dog” Test—Operation Buster-Jangle, Nevada Test Site, November 1951

“Simon” blast--Operation Upshot-Knothole, Nevada

Test Site, April 25, 1953

I-131 Fallout Totals for Upshot-Knothole Series, March-June 1953

“Bravo” blast—Operation Castle, Bikini Atoll, March 1, 1954

Estimated radiation exposures following Bravo blast

President Eisenhower and AEC Chairman Lewis Straus at Press Conference, March 31, 1954(Eisenhower Archives)

From the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission’s 1957 information book, Atomic Tests in Nevada

Senator Orrin Hatch at a press conference in 1989, pushing for passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (passed in 1990 to compensate victims of Nevada tests)

-1957: before testing even over, US tries to resettle Rongelap; residents soon evacuated due to high radiation levels found in residents

-1960s: US begins cleaning up Bikini, with hope of returning residents-1972: Bikinians return-1975: Bikinians file lawsuit demanding full radiation survey of all islands-1978: Bikini evacuated-1980: Enewetak (partially) resettled; residents rely on imported food, regular radiation monitoring-1985: US declares Rongelap clean; resettles residents; US agrees to pay $42 million to cleanup Bikini-1987: Rongelap residents evacuate themselves (with help of Greenpeace); further studies confirm high levels of radiation among residents-1996: US establishes $46 m fund for cleanup and resettlement of Rongelap-1996-2008: Bikini opened for tourism (but not resettled)-2012: US declares Rongelap safe, and pushes for resettlement (advising that resettled residents should eat no more than 30% of their food from local sources); residents are divided….

Attempts at Resettlement in the Marshall Islands

Experimental Plot on Bikini Atoll

(Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)

Disposal site on Runit Island containing soil and debris from Bikini and Rongelap atolls

Marshall Islanders and the struggle for compensation

1977—US Congress approves $1 million to compensate residents of Rongelap and Utrik

1981—Bikini residents file class-action lawsuit in US for loss of land, health effects

1986—Compact of Free Association-Marshall Islands gains independence

-US obtains use of Kwajalein Atoll for ICBM target-establishment of Nuclear Claims Tribunal to settle extant and hear

future claims (funded with $150 million)-US agrees to provide medical care to residents of 4 (out of 29)

atolls2000—NCT tribunal awards $386 million to Enewetak residents ($1.6 m

paid)2000—Marshall Islands petitions US Congress, seeking payment of

awarded compensation and better health care for residents2001—NCT tribunal awards $563 million to Bikini residents ($2.2 m paid)2006—NCT awards $300 million to Utrik residents2006—NCT runs out of money and halts payments2006—Enewetak and Bikini residents file lawsuits seeking payment of

awarded compensation (~$1 billion) 2007—NCT awards Rongelap residents $1 billion (but pays $0)2007—US Court of Federal Claims dismisses Bikini & Enewetak lawsuits;2009—US Court of Appeals upholds dismissal; appealed to Supreme Ct.2010—US Supreme Court refuses to hear the case

Women Strike for Peace Outside the Nevada Test Site, 1961 (National Nuclear Security

Administration)

Downwinder poem, Washington state, author

unknown

Intellectual Effects of the test ban movement: the rise of “ecosystem ecology”

Some conclusions:

• Science and state power-federal support for politically “useful” science (e.g., nuclear physics, ecosystem ecology)-but: emergence of “dissident science,” counter-experts (e.g., Linus Pauling, Barry Commoner)

• Imperialism and its environmental effects

-resource extraction (Cuba)-”conservation”--and its differential social effects, esp. marginalization of indigenous lifeways (US West, Philippines)-wastelands (Marshall Islands)