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Marshall
Islands Program
The Marshall Islands Program was established in 1954 by the
Atomic Energy Commission, the predecessor agency to the DOE,
following the accidental exposure of people in two atolls,
Rongelap and Utrik, to fallout from the U.S. nuclear test
at the Bikini atoll. The program has two components mandated
by Congress: a special medical program that provides annual
medical screenings to detect and treat cancer in the exposed
population, and a radiological and environmental monitoring
program to characterize the radioactive materials in the environment
and in naturally occurring food plants in the four contaminated
atolls of Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap and Utrik, in order to
facilitate the resettlement of these atolls, two of which
have already been resettled.
The Department of Energy is mandated by U.S. Public Law to
provide medical surveillance and care, environmental monitoring
and characterization, and dose assessment for the peoples
of the Marshall Islands. Since 1956, the Department and its
predecessor agencies have provided the latest and most up-to-date
technologies, methodologies, and procedures to assist in treating
possible radiation-related diseases that may arise in the
DOE patient population of Rongelap and Utirik atolls. The
Department also provides assistance to aid the four affected
atolls of Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap, and Utirik in their
efforts to resettle these atolls.
In October 1995, the U.S. Advisory Committee on Human Radiation
Experiments issued its final report, which stated, in part,
that the committee "found no evidence to support the
claim that the exposures [to radioactive fallout] of the Marshallese,
either initially or after resettlement, were motivated by
research purposes." The report also noted that:
| Many other documents describing U.S. government activities
conducted on their [Marshallese] soil have been for too
long shrouded in secrecy or made inaccessible to the Marshallese
by bureaucratic obstacles. This inaccessibility of records,
combined with a history of inadequate disclosure of hazards
known to U.S. researchers, has contributed to a climate
of distrust. |
In an effort to dismantle the barriers that have contributed
to this distrust observed by the Advisory Committee, the Department
of Energy's Office of Health Programs is actively promoting
efforts to locate and make documents available on the medical
care and radiological monitoring activities conducted in the
Marshall Islands by its predecessor agencies.
The purpose of this web page is to provide a means for interested
parties to access electronic copies of historic documents on
subjects that the Department of Energy, in consultation with
the Marshallese government, deemed most useful to researchers.
Special Marshall Islands' Edition/Health
Physics Journal
The status of DOE's Marshall Islands activities, as well as
perspective of other non-DOE authors is included in the special
edition of the Health Physics Journal, Vol. 73, No. 1, July
1997 entitled "Consequences of Nuclear Testing in the Marshall
Islands". The entire publication is available for browsing by
clicking on the following http://www.eh.doe.gov/health/marshall/marsh/journal.
Each contributed paper is also retrievable as a separate document.
It is hoped that this site will be a useful resource for the
people and the government of the Marshall Islands, for information
regarding exposure to radioactive fallout and its effects on
the environment and health as a consequence of the U.S. nuclear
weapons testing program in the Marshall Islands from 1946 to
1958.
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