NMI wants in on nuke testing compensation

The Northern Marianas joined Guam yesterday in the territory’s campaign for inclusion in a federal compensation program for persons exposed to radiation from U.S. nuclear testing.

The Legislature adopted a resolution asking the U.S. Congress to declare that all Americans be given the same consideration when it comes to compensation for exposure to radiation from the United States’ atomic testing in the Pacific.

The lawmakers passed Senate Joint Resolution 14-12 after hearing a presentation of the Guam-based Pacific Association for Radiation Survivors on the impact of the tests.

PARS president Robert N. Celestial, himself an atomic veteran, said that the United States detonated 67 atomic and thermonuclear bombs on the Enewetok and Bikini atolls from 1946 to 1958, resulting in fallout across a wide area of the Pacific.

In 1994, an advisory committee created by then President Clinton declassified military and other documents related to the tests. This led to the passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2000, which identified additional areas as sites of exposure and allowed citizens in those states to receive benefits.

Under the Compensation Act, people exposed onsite are entitled to $75,000 if their cause of illness or death can be linked to radiation exposure. “Down-winders” are entitled to $50,000 each.

According to Celestial, scientists have proven that Guam qualifies as a “downwind” site because winds carried fallout from the Marshall Islands tests to the island. Guam is also an onsite exposure area, as ships used during the atomic tests were decontaminated in the island’s harbor.

But while the RECA coverage has been expanded in 2000, it still does not provide relief to all Americans affected by fallout, particularly CNMI and Guam residents.

Guam Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo has already authored a bill asking the U.S. Congress to include Guam in an assessment for “downwinders” and ship decontamination.

Celestial said that PARS felt duty-bound to inform the residents of the Northern Marianas that they might have been exposed to radioactive elements by the U.S. government.

He noted that, with the CNMI separated by a mere 30 miles from Guam and with both jurisdictions effected by the same wind, weather, and ocean current patterns, it logically follows that radiation which affects Guam necessarily affects the CNMI.

“We have a responsibility to inform the people that this was what happened to us back then. Nobody knew; it was kept secret from us for a long time,” Celestial said.