Hamburg, Germany – Nearly seven decades since the US government ended nuclear weapons testing in the Marshall Islands, a new study has revealed the impacts were far greater than what the US government has so far publicly acknowledged. According to a new study, all atolls, including the southern atolls, received radioactive fallout, but only three of the 24 atolls, all northern and inhabited at the time of fallout, received medical cancer screening.[1]

“The Legacy of U.S. Nuclear Testing in the Marshall Islands” by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) and commissioned by Greenpeace Germany, has comprehensively analyzed official documents from US government military and energy archives, scientific analyses, and medical sources from 1945 to the present day. 

“Among the many troubling aspects of the Marshall Islands’ nuclear legacy is that the United States had concluded, in 1948, after just three tests that the Marshall Islands was not ‘a suitable site for atomic experiments’ because it did not meet the required meteorological criteria. Yet testing went on,” said Arjun Makhijani, report author and President of IEER. 

Among the key findings of the study:

• U.S. government radioactivity measurements and dose estimates show that the entire country was impacted by fallout.
  In the immediate aftermath of Castle Bravo – the US government’s largest ever nuclear weapons test – its capital, Majuro, was officially considered a “very low exposure” atoll. However, radiation levels were tens of times, and up to 300 times more, relative to background gamma radiation levels.
• Nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands created radiation exposures globally, with “hotspots” detected as far west of the Marshall Islands as Colombo, Sri Lanka and as far east as Mexico City.
  The total explosive force detonated on the Marshall Islands was 108 megatons – the equivalent of dropping a Hiroshima bomb every single day for twenty years. On a proportional basis, the nuclear fall out is estimated to result in roughly 100,000 excess cancer deaths worldwide (rounded).[2]
• Remediation of contaminated areas is complex and costly. The Marshall Islands lacks technical capacity in a number of fields crucial to health, environmental protection, and possible resettlement.
  The history of damage by, and distrust of the United States is compounded by Marshallese dependence on the United States for funds and for scientific and medical expertise. As an example, the Runit Dome, which houses decades of nuclear waste, has been deemed “safe” by the US Department of Energy despite cracks and the impact of climate change and sea level rise.

“The tests on the Marshall Islands are exemplary of an inhumane, imperial policy that deliberately sacrificed human lives and ignored Pacific cultures. As a result of this nuclear legacy, the Marshallese have been robbed of their land, traditions, and culture, with the people of Bikini and Rongelap forever displaced,” said Shiva Gounden, Head of Pacific at Greenpeace Australia Pacific. “The US still fails to acknowledge the full extent of the deep impact. However, these atomic bomb tests are not a closed chapter and they are still having an impact today. Reparations that fit the extent of the harms caused by testing are long overdue.”

In March and April, Greenpeace and its flagship vessel, the Rainbow Warrior, completed a six-week mission with radiation specialists and independent scientists to conduct research across the atolls to support the Marshall Island’s government in its ongoing fight for nuclear justice and compensation.[3] It also marked 40 years (May 1985) when Greenpeace helped answer a call and evacuated the people of Rongelap Island to Mejatto due to nuclear fallout from Castle Bravo, which rendered their home uninhabitable.

In July, Greenpeace and the Rainbow Warrior will mark another 40 year anniversary – the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior I by the French secret service, who were attempting to halt Greenpeace’s campaign against nuclear testing in French Polynesia (Maohi Nui).  

ENDS

Photos and videos of Greenpeace’s recent visit in the Marshall Islands, as well as archival footage/images from 1985 are available in the Greenpeace Media Library.

Notes 

[1] Rongelap, Ailinginae, and Utrik atolls were deemed by the US government as the most impacted in terms of their population being affected by radioactive fallout. Currently the US Department of Energy has a limited screening program for some of the people of Rongelap, Utrik, and Ailinginae, plus Bikini. 

[2] This figure is based on UNSCEAR’s (United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation) estimated cumulative global radiation dose, in which a specific radiation dose will lead to a certain cancer mortality, correlating with excess cancer deaths (p. 28 in the report) The figure for the Marshall Islands test impact is based on the dose estimates, and the methodology used by the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and IEER. See “Radioactive Heaven and Earth: The Health and Environmental Effects of Nuclear Weapons Testing In, On, and Above the Earth” (Apex Press, New York 1991).

[3] The analysis of this investigation and scientific sampling will be compiled over many months and into 2026. The eventual report (aimed for Q3-4, 2026) will be shared with the National Nuclear Commission, an agency of the RMI government, and the people of the RMI, to assist in their quest for truth and accountability, before being released publicly.

Contacts

Shuk-Wah Chung, Communications Lead – Marshall Islands project, Greenpeace International, [email protected], (+852) 5420 4186

Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), [email protected]