The Bravo shot

The United States detonated the Hydrogen bomb, code named “Bravo,” on March 1,1954. Bravo was about 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima during the Pacific War. Of all nuclear testing programs, Bravo made a tremendous impact not only on the test site but also on Rongelap Atoll, Utorik Atoll and all other inhabitants of the Marshall Islands with radioactive fallout on a massive scale. Hydrogen bombs using nuclear fusion reaction can release far more amount of radioactive fallout than fission reaction bombs. Fusion bombs have higher kiloton yields and greater efficiencies than fission reaction bombs.

The Rongelap people who were present on the Rongelap Island sustained an estimated dose of 175 roentgens of penetrating whole-body gamma radiation particulate contamination of the skin sufficient to result in beta burns and epilation and some internal absorption of fallout as a result of inhalation and ingestion. These data are not actual measured figures by appropriate instruments. It is calculated from the intensity of the radioactivity found on the island and the decay exponents of the fallout materials.

(citation: National Archives at College Park, Maryland)

Restart nuclear power plant

Kyushu Electric Power Company restarted nuclear power plant reactor 1 at Sendai complex, located in western part of Japan for the first time in two years yesterday, which would add radioactive wastes Japan possesses in domestic and overseas equivalent to the amount for 5000 nuclear warheads.

The U.S. is disposing of used fuel as waste, burying under the ground; Japan regards it as asset reprocessing into plutonium fuel at nuclear reprocessing plant of the UK and France.

Japan struggled in vain to discard used fuel so called high level radioactive wastes abroad once. The Japanese government had at least two plans to build nuclear waste storage facility: in the Marshall Islands in the 1980’s, in Mongolia approximately 5 years ago. Those plans hit setback for objection there. The London treaty forbids transfer of wastes another country. It is still difficult for Japan of small countries to bury high level radioactive wastes underground. It is all the more impossible to just keep a large number of used fuel rods at each nuclear power generation facilities in Japan because of the rising critical appraisal of the potential development of the nuclear weapons in Japan. Japan has no choice but to reprocessing nuclear wastes and using it. But we have only one operating reactor out of 54 reactors for reprocessed fuel in the present. Where are radioactive wastes going?

Actually, even after the accident of Fukushima nuclear power plant in March 11th 2011, the Japanese Government is pushing export of nuclear power plants. I bet the Japanese government thinks that to export nuclear power plants including reprocessed fuel can solve the obstacle accumulating wastes. Japan can transport nuclear materials as asset instead of waste that is prohibited to transfer beyond country by the London treaty. The NPT treaty prohibits export of radioactive materials also. However, the U.S. may overlook export of radioactive materials from Japan to customers because the U. S. has already overlooked that Japan transferred used fuel between Japan and the U.K. or France.

But the problem is that strong earthquakes happen frequently in Taiwan as well as Japan. I never want to see a disaster like Fukushima anymore. Tens of thousands of people are still evacuated apart from their home.

                        discarded rice field of 30 kilometers from Fukushima daiichi power plant (June 2011)

Marshall's Foods

When it comes to choosing Marshallese top three foods, selecting is not so difficult. That’s because the coral reef produces not so many kind of plants because of severe environment, being scarce vegetation. Foods usually selected are Coconut, Breadfruit and Pandanus.

 

Coconut is the most popular fruit in the southern island. It can survive even on salty land in several-month-lasting dry season.

 

Breadfruit originates in the south pacific. It tastes gentle with no strong smell something like bread or potato. Pandanus tastes like a pineapple or a mango. People are making preserved food or fermented food, in addition eat row.  　

These plants are not originally present in the Marshall Islands, carried from the Southeast Asia or other south pacific through immigration for long period. Some Studies explain that people migrated to a new island for settlement, loading a canoe with seeds and young plants.  

 

The Marshall Islands of Coral

The Marshall Islands is composed of 1,225 low-lying coral islets with no mountain or river in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. These islets are not scattered equally around the ocean. Some islets come together forming a chain of islands, an atoll. The atoll has inland sea (lagoon) surrounded by islets. Twenty-nine coral atolls and five isolated coral islands constitute the Marshall Islands. The total land area amounts to 70 square miles (181 square kilometers), and their exclusive economic zone makes up 750 square miles (2,131,000 square kilometers).

The Marshall Islands is such a tiny water world, and a beautiful tropical world with white sand, emerald green colored ocean and tropical fruits!

Do you want to visit the Marshall Islands?
   The answer would be … “Yes! If there is any chance!”
Do you want to live in the Marshall Islands?
   The answer should be … “well…it’s good for just visiting”.

Why did the first settler decid to live on tiny islets? I will introduce local knowledge living on tiny coral atolls in the Marshall Islands in this blog.

Nuclear Testing in the Marshall Islands

The Marshall Islands were the nuclear test ground of the United States from 1946 to 1958, which was started one year after the end of the Second World War that terminated the Japanese mandate in Micronesia. The U.S. government conducted sixty seven times of nuclear testing program in Bikini and Eniwetok Atoll. Five years after the U.S. began test in the Marshall Islands, the U.S. started the nuclear testing in U.S. mainland also.
The total yield of 87 U.S. atmospheric nuclear tests at Nevada test site for eleven years from 1951 to 1962 was 1,096.0385　kilo tons. In the mean time, the one of 67 tests in the Marshall Islands for twelve years was 108,496.18 kilo tons, which was equivalent to 7,200 Hiroshima bombs. This means that 1.6 Hiroshima bombs were to be detonated every day for twelve years.
U.S. nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands released numerous radioisotopes for long period that contaminated their land and exposed residents allover the Marshall Islands causing radiation health effect until now.

Introduction

My blog introduces radiation social effects of nuclear testing program and nuclear power plant and I write down diary.

This blog is written in Japanese English.  Data in this blog is accurate; the English on this blog is inaccurate! For those who want to know about the Marshall Islands and nuclear testing, I prepar Japanese blog. Please search by  "中原聖乃". You can use web translate.

I have been involving the Marshall Islands since 1997 and Fukushima after nuclear power plant accident in March 11, 2011. I am majoring in anthropology, teaching anthropology, peace studies, international relations, cross-cultural communication, and related subjects at several universities in Japan as a part-time lecture.